“SHATTERED”
Embracing One’s True Self

My mentor Stephanie looked at me one day and said, “Sadie, you need to write about your life — the real version. Not the polished one. The true one.” She was working on a book project and she wanted me to contribute. I hesitated. Then I said yes.

So here is the real version.

I was assaulted at the age of seven. I have navigated the complexities of a long marriage with both its joys and its battles. I have raised a son with special needs, which has been one of the greatest privileges and one of the greatest challenges of my life. I have stood at the edge of suicidal ideation and somehow found my way back. I have lost a baby to miscarriage. I have wrestled with perfectionism for decades. I have experienced conflict with my adult daughters that has broken my heart in ways I didn’t think hearts could break.

I have moved 28 times in 27 years. I have been homeless. I became a millionaire at 32, and lost it all by 33. I have been up, and I have been devastatingly down. And through every single one of these moments, there was one thing I refused to do: quit.

“All the greats have been shattered. The question isn’t whether you’ll break — it’s whether you’ll let it make you.”

People often ask me where I find the strength. The answer is always the same: faith. My husband Kyle, who has stood beside me through things that would have broken most partnerships. And a deep, unshakeable knowing that God has not forgotten me. Not once. Not ever.

Suffering, I have learned, is not the enemy of a good life. It is often the very forge in which a great life is made. I don’t say this lightly or to minimize pain. I say it because I have lived it. Because all the greats have been shattered — and they became great not in spite of it, but because of what they chose to do with the pieces.

If you are reading this and you are in one of those shattered seasons — I want you to know that you are not alone. You are not too broken. You are not too far gone. Your story is not over. And neither is mine.