Support for women ripening into their second bite of life.

Dear Reader,

This week, I found myself at my sewing table, seam ripper in hand.

Hearing the satisfying pop, I paused mid-stitch as a quiet curiosity whispered: Was this experimentation, or perfection?

The moment felt oddly familiar—like being that little girl again, pressing too hard on the crayon, slipping past the line, heat rising as I wanted to crumple up the whole page.

So much emotion caught inside a small act.

Looking back with compassion, I see what was really happening:
she was trying to contain something — her learning, her creative spark, her wild.

Of course she was.
So many of us learned early that to stay loved, safe, praised — we needed to live carefully. Stay inside the lines.

But midlife invites a different curriculum.
A kind of de-schooling.

We begin to experiment again.
To make messes. To follow curiosity. To trust what feels new and uncertain.

It hands us the seam ripper and says:
Unpick the hems.
Undo what no longer lets you breathe.
Let the fabric of your life drape freely, soft and uncontained.

For you, it might look like leaving the job that no longer fits.
Wearing what feels like you, not what’s “appropriate.”
Resting when your body asks for stillness, even when the world keeps sprinting.

These moments are more than preference; they’re a spiritual practice.
Each one whispers:
​Who are you creating your life for—
the child who tried so hard to be good,
or the woman who knows wholeness?

I’ll be back Sunday with a simple reflection to help you stay close to that question.

xx,
Brooke

P.S. The Second Bite waitlist opens soon—a cozy space for women practicing life beyond the lines.