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I can only imagine the thoughts racing through my step-brother, Jeff’s, mind as he drove the 45 minutes from Bellevue to Tacoma to carry me away the day I tried to kill myself. My sister, my always-there beat of hope, called me seconds before I plunged the needle of life-ending crystal myth into the one…

Hope is believing that when you set out cookies and milk, Santa will come. – Trish Kendall My family and I celebrate Christmas, and I absolutely love it. I love our family traditions, like spending Christmas Eve with extended family which turns into a too-late night. And every year we stay up too late, Grandma…

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. My alarm goes off at 5:30am every morning. I fumble around to hit the oval button on the top of the clock that tells me it’s time to get up. My pre-programmed coffee maker has already started working for the day, and the delicious aroma wafts into my bedroom, doing a…

“WE HAVE TO DEBRIEF!” – Carolyn. I read the text message on a Sunday evening after one of my closest friends, Carolyn, closed out her time at a very important weekend conference. She had been anxious about this conference for weeks, so I was relieved to hear from her husband earlier that day that it…

“I promise, this will never happen again.” I heard those words from my father so many times I lost count. From the time I was 6 years old, his repeated sexual abuse taught me that promises were meant to be broken. I couldn’t trust anyone. And as I grew up, no one could trust me.…

Growing up I became a master compartmentalizer. I practiced and perfected compartmentalizing just as assiduously as my classmates worked on long division. I could shut out thoughts or whole experiences as swiftly as you might turn off the lights or pour a glass of milk. It was not my goal to excel at it, I…

“When my dear sister finally picked up the phone that day, I was so grateful that she loved me enough to answer the phone and trusted me enough to choose to live!!!”

My sister Maria is a shining example of how one beat of hope can transform a lifetime. My time in the tar pit of drugs may be an extreme example – but at some point, we all have been in a situation where we need a beat of hope. Here’s what I learned from my sister about being a beat of hope for others.

Have you ever been in one of those spirals of despair? You know, something terrible happens in your life, and you self-soothe by doing something that puts you in an even deeper place. Breaking the cycle is tough when you’re in deep. I had the honor of speaking at Parlay House about my own tragic…