By Marie W.O.W.C.P.

For a long time, rest felt complicated to me.

There was always a part of my mind telling me that if I slowed down, I was somehow falling behind.

That if I rested, I was wasting time.

Living with cerebral palsy, my body often asks more from me than people realize.

There are days when simply getting through the day takes so much energy.

Physical energy.

Mental energy.

Emotional energy.

And yet, for years, I struggled with allowing myself to stop.

I thought strength meant always pushing forward.

Always doing more.

Always proving that I could keep going.

But life has been teaching me something gentler.

Rest is not weakness.

Rest is wisdom.

There are moments when my body is asking me for grace.

Moments when slowing down is not giving up — it is caring for myself.

I am learning that healing does not only happen in movement.

Sometimes healing happens in stillness.

In quiet.

In giving myself permission to breathe.

To sit in the sunshine.

To listen to what my body is trying to tell me.

There is beauty in learning that rest is part of resilience.

Sometimes the strongest thing we can do is stop, listen, and begin again tomorrow.

Seeing the beauty between the challenges.
— Marie W.O.W.C.P.