After a Two-Month Pause, I’m Ready to Tell This Story by Lisa McKenzie

Send us Fan MailWelcome back to our new season everyone!  Before we post all of the amazing interviews lined up, I have been sitting on my fourth story and pondering if I should share it.  Because Story Crafting allows participants to dive into traumatic experiences and find peace with what they have been through, well - it is only fitting that I took advantage of this platform and opportunity to do the same.I Can Only ImagineWhat happens when the life you thought you were building suddenly becomes the life you have to grieve?In this deeply personal episode of Still I Rise, Lisa McKenzie shares I Can Only Imagine, her fourth story written using the Story Crafting process.Beginning with the childhood heartbreak of watching her family fall apart after her father left, Lisa explores how those early wounds resurfaced decades later when the husband she loved—and trusted because he knew her story—chose to leave their marriage rather than fight for it.But this isn't a story wrapped neatly in a silver lining.It's about the complicated truth of rebuilding a life you never asked to rebuild. It's about learning independence when you never wanted to be independent, finding peace while still being angry about what it took to get there, and grieving the life that might have been.Lisa also wrestles with a question many people carry after betrayal: Would an apology finally make a difference? Or is what we're really longing for something deeper—the acknowledgment that what happened to us mattered?Perhaps healing doesn't require us to be grateful for what broke us.Perhaps we can simply be grateful that we survived it.And perhaps the most powerful thing no one can ever take from us is our ability to tell the truth about our own story.“I can be angry about what happened and peaceful about where I am. I can wish he'd fought for me and know today that I am worth fighting for.”This is I Can Only Imagine.A story about abandonment, betrayal, worth, the life that might have been—and finally realizing:I was worth it. And I am.Support the showStill I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY.  To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories.  Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story?  Write to us at [email protected]