Pretty and Painful

Episode 36: Today, The Cake is Bitter

Episode 36: Today, the Cake Is Bitter Bitterness rarely arrives all at once. It starts with a broken promise, an unanswered apology, a betrayal, a loss, or a wound that never truly healed. Before long, the hurt we’ve been carrying begins to shape the way we see people, the way we love, and even the way we see ourselves. In this episode of Pretty & Painful, we’re having an honest conversation about bitterness, pettiness, grace, and what it means to check the posture of our own hearts. Because while hurt people often hurt people, that doesn’t have to be the end of our story. We’ll talk about: * Why bitterness quietly steals our joy. * How resentment affects our relationships. * Knowing when it’s time to walk away from unhealthy people. * Choosing grace over getting even. * Finding freedom through God instead of letting pain define us. My prayer is simple: that your heart becomes lighter than it was before you pressed play. Because love was never meant to feel like a war zone. Welcome back to Pretty & Painful… where grief and joy sit at the same table. Today, the cake is bitter. 🤍

Episode 35 : I wish they could see this

🤍 Episode 35 | I Wish They Could See This I catch myself saying it all the time. “I wish they could see this.” The new doors God is opening. Choosing joy on the hard days. Walking away when it’s time. Beating cancer. The perfect peanut butter cookies. Even my ginger hair… which I’m still hoping heaven lets me keep. 😉 Grief has taught me something I never expected. The people we love don’t stop showing up. Sometimes it’s in a Winn-Dixie phone number that still saves me money. Sometimes it’s a run-on sentence that sounds just like someone I miss. Sometimes it’s spilled coffee by the coffee pot. Sometimes it’s a laugh, a mannerism, or a little bit of sass in someone else. Maybe they aren’t beside us anymore. But maybe little pieces of them are still all around us. And maybe that’s one of God’s sweetest gifts—that love leaves fingerprints. “We do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.” — 1 Thessalonians 4:13 Grief grows. By God’s grace… so do we. 🎙️ Episode 35, “I Wish They Could See This,” is available now. Pull up a chair. I’d love to have you at the table. 🤍

Episode 34: Happy Birthday To You

Maybe birthdays after loss will never feel the way they used to. Maybe there will always be an empty chair. An unanswered phone. A name your heart still waits to hear. But love doesn’t end because a life does. The people we love keep showing up—in recipes we still make, songs we still sing, stories we still tell, and traditions we refuse to let die. So celebrate anyway. Not because grief is gone. But because love is still here. Happy Birthday to them. Thank you for loving them enough that their absence still echoes. And if today is heavy… I’m proud of you for making it through another one. I’ll meet you back here next week. Same table. Different stories. Still making room for grief and joy to sit side by side. Until then… Keep choosing love. Keep choosing grace. And keep choosing to remember. — B.

Working Thru Grief : Denial

🎙️ WORKING THROUGH GRIEF: DENIAL I used to tell myself my elementary school best friend wasn’t dead. She had simply gone undercover for the FBI. Delusional? Absolutely. But grief doesn’t care about logic. That’s the thing about denial nobody tells you. It’s not always refusing reality. Sometimes it’s your heart buying time. Sometimes it sounds like: “But we just talked.” “I just saw them.” “I just texted them.” As if yesterday should protect us from today. As if loss should have given us more warning. In this episode, we’re talking about the stories we tell ourselves when our hearts aren’t ready for the truth. The pretty. The painful. And the space between what our heads know and what our hearts are still learning. 💛 Because sometimes denial is just love struggling to catch up with loss. #PrettyAndPainfulPodcast #WorkingThroughGrief #Denial #GriefJourney #GriefSupport #HealingOutLoud #GriefAndGrace #PodcastLife

Episode 32: Slipping Away

Episode 32: Slipping Away ⚠️ Content Warning: This episode discusses depression, anxiety, emotional exhaustion, and survival mode. Some episodes I show up with answers. This isn’t one of them. This week we’re talking about the quiet battles. The kind you fight while you’re still smiling. The kind nobody notices because you’re still showing up, still functioning, still carrying the weight. We’re talking about depression. Anxiety. Feeling yourself slip away while trying to convince everyone you’re okay. For the first time in a long time, I took a step back. Not because I wanted to, but because I needed to. And if you’ve ever found yourself drowning without the energy to ask for help, this episode is for you. But somewhere in the middle of the darkness, one thought kept finding me: God’s not done with me yet. So if you’re exhausted, overwhelmed, heartbroken, anxious, or simply surviving today, pull up a chair. We’ll sit in it together. Same table as always Because sometimes survival is holy too.