Everywhere I Go, There I Am
reflections on one year since the genesis of my substack journey.
Everywhere I go, there I am.
Life will always bring you back to yourself. This time last year was a journey home, of sorts. I fell apart in more ways than one — lost, but then rediscovered myself.
Somewhere in the breaking, I felt a beckoning to come back to my words and the healing power that they hold. That’s where my Substack journey began, which came from a yearning to create a soft landing — a haven of safety and vulnerability. Marking a year since its genesis, I feel, calls for a reintroduction.
My name is Mariah Maddox. I am a storyteller, feeler, witnesser, ancestral healer, lineage weaver — those inform much of what I do. I am also a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, and so many other things.
But most of all, I am me. An iteration of heaven — in human form. A woman yearning to be a witness of her own being. To take the backroads and fall in love with the long-drawn scenic routes of her own soul.
I am an entity of multitudes. An utterance of the prayers whispered by those whom I come from. I am a woman woven into the intricate details of life, love, and laughter. Of grief, ache, and sorrow. In it all, I am there.
Through the breaking, I found my way back to the root of myself.
said it best. That broken does not necessarily equate to damaged. That perhaps, reimagined, it is an act of birthing. I am breaking into a version of myself that I have never been before. Bursting through the shell of my former self. Emerging.The laboring pains, the contractions — they are all there as I make my way through the passageway of this womb. A wisdom I have leaned into is that the pain we collect through life can either be a memorial site or a birthing space. I am actively choosing to make mine the place of my nativity.
Here now, the dust is far from settled, but on this side, I am more tender with myself. More graceful. More forgiving. More knowing. And more sure. Sure that the work I have been called to is meaningful. Sure that my lineage depends on it, but also that I depend on it. Sure that I have an offering. Sure that heaven is touching earth through me.
This community has requited the safety and vulnerability that I pour into All My Language. It truly feels like a space to come with the heap of our humanness, unfold, and lean in. I extend my gratitude to those who have been on this journey with me, and extend my arms to everyone who has yet to join me here.
With love & light,
Mariah Maddox
I have some up-and-coming things that I’m excited to be sharing: a series on navigating friendship loss and the importance of sisterhood/community, a post detailing my time spent at a transformative writer’s retreat in Greece, and other topics I’ve been wanting to explore for a while. More to come soon.
You made it to Greece!!! Yay! 👏🏾
Your words speak life.