photo at Books & Co. by Lara Herscovitch

It’s been three years since the COVID lockdown stay-at-home time invited me into deep healing, when I started writing to release the pain of feelings and experiences. It was a life-turning point for me — I started to be obedient to the inner voice and call to become a poet.

Then, a year ago, as I shared in Part 1, I said another Yes. Not to perfection, but to presence. Not for applause, but for obedience. With trembling faith and a clear assignment, I started sharing the affirmations that were helping to guide me on my own healing journey.

Literally sitting in my vehicle on October 21 of last year, I texted a short video and my “I am” affirmation for the week to those closest to me. I was also called to be consistent, so I kept going, once a week.

Then in late February, I uploaded my first episode online. I did not feel courageously ready. But that was the title; maybe if I say “I AM courageously ready,” my leap of faith will make it true. Since then, all this year, I have continued to speak life, reclaim my identity, reframe who I am becoming, holding space for myself and others to heal. It is a sacred offering, birthed in motion, anchored in truth, and wrapped in that rhythm of consistency.

Today, on October 21, one year after those first text messages with video from my vehicle, I am A Woman Who Stayed. Who showed up every Monday. Who became consistent. Who became ME. I don’t show up from a studio or a marketing team. Just my voice, a calling, and the strength of God carrying me into the birthing room every Monday.

The work is a mirror. It reflects the fruit of my Yes, the role modeling I offer for my sons, and the healing I’ve embraced.

Through Pain to Purpose

This was not an easy year to show up every Monday with an offering. Two months ago, on August 25, I had spinal surgery. It was hard, painful, slow, scary.

Before surgery, one of my goals was to record multiple videos in advance, so I could focus on resting and healing. I accomplished that before I was admitted into the hospital, but only up to that week’s offering. So, for two consecutive weeks during the worst of the early healing, I didn’t upload. 

Friends sent texts and emails, including: “We miss hearing your voice.”

Those words reminded me of the power of the ways our showing up and speaking our voice can create connection. So I leaned back – slowly and carefully — into a recliner chair where I slept while the worst of the post-surgery healed. I ordered a tripod, a microphone, and used the pillow my friend Courtney gifted me for my laptop.

My consistency was needed. For those I love, and for me. 

So I kept showing up. Some days, I recorded from the recliner, whispering through the pain. Some weeks, I didn’t know if I had the strength to speak, but the words still came. Because this podcast isn’t just content, it’s covenant. It’s obedience. It’s healing. It’s a legacy. Jehovah Jireh met me in the birthing room every time. Every “I AM” was delivered through grace. Every episode was a labor of love and light.

I didn’t just speak, I surrendered. I didn’t just post, I had hope that my consistency would ignite someone’s power to show up for their next-level assignment. And today, I celebrate not just consistency, but the miracle of becoming. Here I am, still saying Yes.

Checking in each week became a spiritual checkpoint, a place to reset, reflect, and rise. I speak from my soul, not a script. I share my truth, I honor the calling. I heal, and turn dread into delight. Routine can offer revelation — a space to reframe, reset, shift. 

I witnessed the power of a consistent Yes. As someone wrote to me recently, “showing up is sacred.” Every Monday, it takes the form of an affirmation, like: I AM CONFIDENT. I AM CAPABLE. Then the “Happy Monday” song.

The fruit of this labor is connection. I am not alone, you are not alone. We all need the lifeline. Let us cheer each other on as we celebrate ourselves in the reminder that leadership is about integrity as well as impact. 

I AM HER. Not just becoming… but being. Not just surviving…. but thriving. Not just speaking… but listening. Not just healing… but holding space for others as they heal.

So at this one-year anniversary, I celebrate myself — for the first time! I honor the woman who didn’t shrink. Who didn’t wait for permission. Who didn’t need a crowd to be consistent. I am rooted in my Scripture anchor: Galatians 6:9 (NIV)

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

I AM honoring the places I didn’t quit. I am the fruit of my yes. I am becoming, on purpose, with purpose. My faith is connected to my consistency to continue saying yes, like it’s my first yes. It is bearing legacy.

Cultivating Courage

As my pastor, Dr. Dharius Daniels said, “Courage must be cultivated because courage is contextual. Just because you had courage for one situation doesn’t mean you automatically have it for another. Just because you had courage in one season doesn’t mean you have it in the next. Just because you had courage to do a thing in the past doesn’t mean you will have it to do a thing in the future.”

Cultivating courage is work I’m still tending to. Every page is a seed. Every reflection, a watering. Every prompt, a push toward my own courageous becoming.

So wherever you are, whatever season you’re in, may you cultivate your courage. May you rise.

? Closing Call to Reflection

I invite you to reflect on your own Yes. To honor your own voice. To remember that the door stays open when you do. Repeat after me!

I am the hand holding the key. I am the consistency I once thought I couldn’t see. I am the voice that says Yes. Resilience joins me. Restoration embraces me. Rising connects to my Yes. 

Where have you shown up when it wasn’t easy? What “I AM” have you delivered through pain, through faith, through fire? As Mark Twain said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.”

Journal Prompt: Think back to a moment when you said yes to something that stretched you. Maybe it was quiet. Maybe it was scary. Maybe it didn’t feel like enough. But you said Yes. What did that yes cost you? What did it grow in you? What fruit are you seeing now, because you didn’t quit? Write it down. Honor it. Speak it aloud. Declare it boldly:

I am the evidence. I am the fruit of my Yes. I am becoming, on purpose, with purpose.

This isn’t just my anniversary. It’s an invitation to remember your own Yes. To honor the places you didn’t quit. To celebrate the fruit of your obedience. 

Connect with Maria on Instagram or LinkedIn, listen on YouTube or Spotify

To reach Maria directly: Myiamexperience@gmail.com

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