Literature: Stories That Shape Us

Creative works exploring wisdom traditions, relationships, and resilience

Welcome to the creative heart of Love Wisely, where stories become bridges connecting generations, cultures, and experiences.

In Development

A reflective memoir chronicling a journey through education, from kindergarten recluse hiding in corners refusing to talk to "math superstar" and 3rd place in a speech contest, from middle school truancy to high school drop out, from teen mom to college grad, from PreK assistant to doctoral candidate—but this isn't a story about overcoming. It's a story about the generational wisdom that shines through the cracks of generational trauma, the humility that equips us to learn from our mistakes, and the teachers, friends, and strangers who show up at exactly the right moment with tough love and tender mercies that ignite our faith and hope.

This memoir begins with an unmedicated ADHD mind in a post-Covid world—one that jumps from working-class 1986 to Pinterest to generational patterns in the span of a paragraph, trying to navigate out-of-order emotions and memories from 17 years of marriage, widowhood, single parenting, healing from trauma, and yes, even three days in jail (a story involving poor communication skills and misplaced trust that was supposed to take years to resolve, but God graciously had other plans). Through a journey of doom-scrolling, persistent self-education, medication, therapy, cognitive frameworks, AI collaboration, addiction recovery, abuse survival, lifestyle changes, and ultimately returning to an unmedicated state with hard-won tools, I learned my scattered thinking is actually pattern recognition across generations of both trauma and resilience.

The same neurodivergent traits that made me hide in kindergarten corners also helped me recognize the teachers who breathed life back into my will to learn—like the one who gave me negative grades on 10th-grade essays and pulled me into the hallway to say, "You damn well better become a teacher! You'll be able to get through to teens like you and show others how to reach them too!" Without her fierce belief, I'm not sure I would have chosen this path. My emotional intensity helped me understand I had a lot to learn. My Maimeo's lifelong encouragement to always "pray for wisdom and understanding" and my late husband's belief that "you have to love them enough to set boundaries rather than enable dysfunction" shaped countless bedside hospital conversations with each of them before they died over 12 years apart. My nonlinear thinking helped me see how generational patterns could be transformed rather than just broken. In some of our final conversations before he passed, my late husband reminded me, "Promise me you won't do life alone. Find a partner. Finish your dissertation. And teach our children to Love Wisely."

This book chronicles the sacred ordinary moments when people show up for each other—through grief, divine intervention, legal nightmares, medical battles, recovery work, and the slow rebuilding of relationships. Heavy and funny, hopeful and heartbreaking, each chapter offers wisdom gathered from ancestors, mentors, and fellow travelers, alongside practical tools for anyone walking similar paths.

If you've ever wondered how generational trauma and generational wisdom can coexist, how faith equips us to love without enabling, or how one person's belief can redirect an entire life—this memoir is a love letter to the people who see us before we see ourselves.

Themes: Educational journey, grief and growth, social-emotional learning, finding purpose

In Development

 "A hidden mass in 1580, a revolutionary choice in 1754, a sharecropper's dignity in 1940—discover how one family's pattern of positive disintegration created generational wisdom that transforms communities." 

A multigenerational story exploring how families navigate trauma, wisdom, and healing across different cultural traditions. This novel weaves together themes from social-emotional learning research with timeless questions about love, loss, and resilience.

Themes: Family dynamics, cultural wisdom traditions, trauma and healing, intergenerational relationships

Selected pieces exploring themes of wisdom, relationships, and resilience

Coming Soon: A curated collection of poems and reflections that have shaped the Love Wisely philosophy.

• Research-based titles on social-emotional learning
• Multigenerational wisdom literature
• Trauma-informed storytelling
• Cultural bridge-building narratives

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Literature has the power to help us understand ourselves and others more deeply. Through storytelling—both reading and writing—we explore the complex landscape of human relationships and discover wisdom that transcends generations and cultures.

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All creative works launching post-PhD completion (2026-2027). Thank you for your patience as I complete my doctoral journey.