If we didn’t choose the trauma, how do we choose what happens next?

Send us Fan MailLife can fracture in a single moment, and the crack line often becomes the date we measure everything against: before and after. We’re reflecting on a powerful conversation with Tim Smith, author of Fault Line Still Standing, whose own fault line began with a kidnapping at six years old. His story opens the door to a bigger question many of us carry: if we didn’t choose the trauma, how do we choose what happens next?We talk about why the event isn’t the whole definition of a life, and why “surviving” and “healing” are not the same thing. Healing isn’t linear, it can still hurt years later, and it rarely comes with a neat ending. We also name the quieter battle that follows trauma: the toxic story it whispers about your worth. Instead of “you’re damaged,” we practice telling the fuller truth, that you made it, you adapted, you found tools, and you kept going. Along the way, we connect this to neurodivergence, autism, FASD, adoption, grief, and the way identity can be shaped by hardship without being owned by it.Then we pivot to what purpose looks like on the other side of the fault line: writing, storytelling, and building something new. Ann shares a personal update on the memoir Loving Differently, the Living Differently brand and resources, and a children’s book centered on Wren, a bird who flies differently and discovers that different can be beautiful. If this conversation resonates, subscribe, share it with someone who’s rebuilding, and leave a review so more people can find it.Support the show