The Bloom – Notes from Real Life
Hey y’all! This is my personal space – where I share what it looks like to live The Bloom in real time.
Not the polished version. The lived one.
Here, I write about the honest, messy, tender parts of growth: tending nourishment, honoring capacity, pruning what no longer serves, and learning how to cultivate something sustainable while life is still very much happening. These reflections come from walking the pillars day by day — sometimes with clarity, sometimes with uncertainty, and often with both at once.
As I continue to bloom, this space grows too. What I share here is shaped by experience, reflection, and the quiet confidence that comes from staying with the work long enough for it to change you.
If you’re finding your way through your own season of growth, you’re welcome here.
This is me, sharing what it looks like as I go.
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Blog
The Bloom – Notes from Real Life Hey y’all! This is my personal space – where I share what it looks like to live The Bloom in real time. Not the polished version. The lived one. Here, I write about the honest, messy, tender parts of growth: tending nourishment, honoring capacity, pruning what no longer…
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Herding Cattle, Momentum & Micro Movements
Read more: Herding Cattle, Momentum & Micro MovementsNot broken, just untended. Notes from a city girl in a cow pasture 5am on a Wednesday How many times have you sat with the anxiety, the fear that you’re failing at the thing that is important? I typically have this written and scheduled to publish before Tuesday even arrives. This week? It is about…
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Where Did This Come From, and Does It Belong to Me?
Read more: Where Did This Come From, and Does It Belong to Me?I have been really trying to be less self-conscious about my appearance when I post on social media. There is, and has always been, a loud voice in the back of my head that says mean things. I don’t care. You’re so dumb. Shut up. The mean dialogue keeps going if I let it. I…
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Navigating Life’s Winter Seasons: How to Tend to Yourself When Chaos Strikes
Read more: Navigating Life’s Winter Seasons: How to Tend to Yourself When Chaos StrikesA personal reflection on resilience, leadership, and applying the 5 Pillars framework when life completely flips. Last week, I declared to myself and my community at Maintaining Melinda that I was done waiting for the “perfect” time to pursue my dreams. I was ready to flip the narrative, shed my limiting beliefs, and step fully…
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Expansion, Cracks, and Finding the Right Ground
Read more: Expansion, Cracks, and Finding the Right GroundCracks, quiet rooms, and pool water: Why things that disrupt us are actually helping us grow. Sitting inside my son’s house on a dreary, rainy afternoon, the quiet felt heavier than usual. Almost deafening. There were no sounds coming from the other rooms, no furniture, no grandpups, Archie and Captain, racing across the floor. Their…
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Some Goodbyes Split You Wide Open
Read more: Some Goodbyes Split You Wide OpenThis week has been heavy. Like really heavy. The office where I returned to corporate life after having the privilege of staying home with my boys for nearly a decade has officially been sold. While I’m fortunate enough to remain with the company in a new role, my heart aches for many of my former…
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The Weight of the Bloom (and the Beauty in the Heavy)
Read more: The Weight of the Bloom (and the Beauty in the Heavy)I haven’t written here in a while. If I’m being honest, it’s because the soil has been heavy lately. For the last several months, my life has been a blur of dualities: the steady rhythm of my full-time career by day, and the soul-stirring work of building The Bloom by Maintaining Melinda and launching Jasmine…
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Eat the Frog First (And Then Build a Life You Love Sitting In)
Read more: Eat the Frog First (And Then Build a Life You Love Sitting In)Hey y’all, Today I want to talk about why we all need to eat the frog first. You’ve probably heard the phrase “eat the frog first.”Do the thing you don’t want to do. The thing you keep putting off. The thing that quietly sits in the back of your mind, taking up more space than…
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Quiet Love in Marriage: A Bottle of Clarifier
Read more: Quiet Love in Marriage: A Bottle of ClarifierLove is steady. Growth is enduring. It’s early spring here. That strange in-between season where winter hasn’t fully left but the promise of warmer days is close enough to taste. Last weekend, I started opening the pool. I added the first round of chemicals, and just like clockwork, the water turned that familiar milky blue.…
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Becoming Her (Without Pretending)
Read more: Becoming Her (Without Pretending)A quiet shift I didn’t expect There’s a charger in my office sitting on the credenza behind my desk.It’s been there for years — a quiet reminder I see almost every day. It says:“Imagine the best version of yourself, then show up as her every day.” For a long time, that message resonated with me.It…
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Maintaining Health When Life Keeps Handing You More
Read more: Maintaining Health When Life Keeps Handing You MoreLife after weight loss and health changes taught me that healing isn’t a finish line. It’s a practice of continuing, even when the season feels heavy. A few years ago, I was sick, exhausted, and sitting in yet another doctor’s office—already braced for the same answer I’d heard for years. High blood pressure?Lose weight.Type II…