by Stephanie Benedetto | Jul 23, 2017 | Awakened Thoughts
I was very good at pretending to be a good girl. I listened to my parents and teachers. I followed the rules, played nicely with others, shared my toys. I defended the kids who got picked on. I read my Bible, said my prayers and asked for forgiveness. To all...
by Stephanie Benedetto | Jul 16, 2017 | Awakened Thoughts
“Pots are formed from clay, but the empty space within it is the essence of the pot.” — Lao Tse There once was a man who asked the guru a burning question. “Who am I?” The guru handed him an onion. “Your identity is made up of layers of thoughts and feelings....
by Stephanie Benedetto | May 7, 2017 | Awakened Thoughts
I woke up one morning eleven years ago with the song playing in my mind: “This is not my beautiful my house…This is not my beautiful life…My god, what have I done?” I wanted to explode everything. This wasn’t the life I had chosen. This wasn’t what I ordered....
by Stephanie Benedetto | Apr 30, 2017 | Awakened Thoughts
I hate being rejected. It makes me feel flattened, beaten down. A ghost without a soul. I’m the little kid who gets called “brownie” because the teacher calls on her too much, the girl whose crush looks right through her, the woman whose memoir is turned down by a...
by Stephanie Benedetto | Apr 9, 2017 | Awakened Thoughts
I took up my own challenge and wrote a description of my Future Self. This is who I saw. She is empowered, confident, compassionate, generous, true, playful, sexy, sensual. She walks into a room and people notice, not because she is loud or because she draws...
by Stephanie Benedetto | Apr 2, 2017 | Awakened Thoughts
When I was twelve years old, I caught my mom smoking behind the house. This was a BIG DEAL because she told me she’d quit, and the church we belonged to said that cigarettes and other addictions were “evil.” Seeing her with that cigarette dangling from her lips broke...
