The Girassol Journal 🌻

While sitting quietly in the grass with my dogs, I noticed something simple: my two knees telling the story of the past two years. What began as a reflection on injury and recovery became a deeper realization about how healing truly happens, both in the body and in life. Just like our bodies rebuild themselves step by step after an injury, our personal growth also unfolds in phases, often quietly and unseen.

We often admire what we can see in others: their confidence, success, or happiness. But like an iceberg, most of what shapes a person exists beneath the surface. This reflection explores the quiet strength, unseen growth, and deeper story that lives below what the world can see.

When I was a teenager, I remember saying to my mom, “But everybody is doing it.” I don’t remember what it was. It wasn’t anything bad. It was just that familiar pull of the crowd, and the quiet fear of being left out, of not moving with everyone else. She looked at me and said, “Well... you are not everybody.” At the time, that was simply her way of saying no, and it stung. It felt unfair, like I was being asked to stand alone while everyone else blended in. I didn’t yet unde

This happened a few years ago, but I remember it vividly. Not just the event itself, but also the feeling. I remember where I was. The narrow road. The time of day. What I was wearing. Even the temperature in the car. And most of all, the state of mind I was in that day. I was driving home, and I couldn’t wait to get there. I wasn’t late for anything and there was nothing urgent waiting for me. But my mind was racing.  I was frustrated with life. Frustrated with not knowing w