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Holly Arnaud

Becoming the Steady One

Becoming the Steady One

There are some roles we do not choose. In my own childhood, unpredictability meant my mother would sometimes leave without notice — days, sometimes longer — and I learned early how to hold things together. When unpredictability lives in the home, someone often quietly becomes the steady one. Meals still need to

Staying With What Didn’t Resolve

Staying With What Didn’t Resolve

Some endings come with conversation. Some endings arrive without warning. Sometimes relationships close without repair. Words are left unsaid. Clarifications never happen. You find yourself holding an ending you didn’t choose and didn’t fully understand. There is a particular discomfort in that kind of silence. The mind wants

Peace Moves Slowly

Peace Moves Slowly

Over the past few weeks, I have been following the journey of monks walking from Texas to Washington, D.C., offering their steps as a living prayer for peace. What struck me is not only the distance they were covering, but the way they honored the journey itself. They walked

The Pressure to Forgive

The Pressure to Forgive

There is a quiet pressure many of us feel to forgive quickly. We are often pushed - internally and externally - to move on, to let things go, to be the bigger person. Forgiveness is often presented as the most mature response: a marker of healing, maturity, or spiritual progress.

When Strength Becomes a Way of Leaving Ourselves

When Strength Becomes a Way of Leaving Ourselves

Many of us learned early that strength meant not needing help. Strength meant handling things quietly. Not asking too much. Not worrying others. Not becoming a burden. I learned this young. Growing up with two parents who struggled with mental illness, I stepped into a role beyond my years. I

What the Body Knows Before We Do

What the Body Knows Before We Do

Before we have language and can make sense of what we are feeling, before any decisions on how to respond, the body often knows before the mind catches up. A tightening in the chest, a shallow breath, a heaviness that arrives without explanation- signals we are quick to override and

The Power of Staying

The Power of Staying

Staying is not the same as standing still. It is an active choice — to remain present with what we don’t yet understand. Most of us were never taught how to do this. We learned how to move forward. How to cope. How to reframe, distract, stay busy, stay productive.