leadership meant paying attention to my thoughts, feelings, and body. Leadership meant survival, tending, and doing what I could. Now leadership looks different. Now it looks like holding compassion toward myself for not knowing what to say then or how to say it well. And it looks like extending that same compassion to others when they respond in ways I may not understand. I have more tools, more space, more grace for myself now. But that day, I wasn’t ready. And being able to name that, to notice and honor it? That’s leadership too.
