Living with Loren

I live in a space where retrospect and introspect constantly meet. They’re like Siamese twins in my mind—connected, inseparable, ever-present. One looks back, pulling memories from shelves I didn’t know I still kept. The other turns inward, asking me,”What did that moment plant in you? What did it prune?”

They don’t fight for space.
They sit beside each other quietly,
braiding my thoughts with honesty and grace. Together, they’ve shaped how I see myself, how I mother, how I forgive, how I let go.

It was early 2022 when this understanding became real to me.
January, just after the New Year.
My mother and I had taken a girls’ trip to Savannah—a little soul reset.
I was living with my then-boyfriend, temporarily, in the tension between what I had sold and what I was trying to build. And in that space, I saw the truth:
some relationships aren’t rooted—just placed.

That Sunday, we had brunch at Good Times Jazz Bar, live gospel music spilling into our mimosas.
By the time we hit the road back home, the ride was quiet—peaceful, heavy,
the kind of quiet that makes you listen to yourself.

I was driving, trying to stay awake,
so I let my mind wonder, and my soul speak. I started thinking about plants,
and I asked my mama to look up the definition of pruning.

She read what Google had to say.
Then I asked, “If you don’t trim the dead branches or leaves, will the plant still grow?”

She didn’t even pause.
“Yes,” she said, “but it’ll be difficult.”

That was it.
That was the moment.
I knew God was speaking.
I knew I was about to be pruned.

Not because I was dying—but because I was becoming.

So now when people ask me how I’ve grown, I tell them it didn’t come easy.
It came through the quiet rides, the trimming of the dying leaves I had to stop watering, and the voice of a mama who knew.

This is not just a journey of self-awareness—this is the moment I turned toward becoming.

And next Monday, I’ll tell you how I did.

Until Next Time,

Keep Living!

Love, Loren

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“Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it.”
—Habakkuk 2:2 (NKJV)