This Is Not the Place for You

I didn’t want to leave.

Not because it was safe — but because it was familiar.

Because stepping away from what’s broken

requires stepping into the unknown.

And even when the room was full of judgment,

even when the shame didn’t belong to me,

it was still what I knew.

But then she stood beside me —

Mary.

The one who knows what it is to be misnamed, misunderstood,

misused by systems that claim holiness while hiding harm.

And she said:

“This is not the place for you.”

Not as punishment.

Not as rejection.

But as liberation.

And even though I didn’t yet know what came next,

I trusted the thread she held.

I walked.

Shaking.

Sacred.

Seen.

One reverent step at a time.

Journal Prompt:

Have you ever stayed in a place too long — not because it was good, but because it was familiar?

What would it feel like to trust that inner voice, that sacred witness, saying:

“This is not the place for you”?

Write about the space you’re leaving…

and the space you’re beginning to step into.