The Way Back Home

by Courtney Peppernell

For even in the stillness of this life, your existence matters. Courage lives in the refusal to surrender and the will to stay.

So I reminded her that living with her heart open, despite all the ache, meant she held courage. That, in time, like all things, she would once again flourish.

The truth of the matter was this—it was my job to find the courage myself. I was the intervention. I chose what road to travel. I was the good in my life. I needed to create the magic all on my own, even through the fear and in all the ways I had drowned. For in the courage comes this new capacity to be beautiful, brave, and found.

that people could be better than I had thought them to be before.