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Personal Reflection

There are seasons when life demands more than we ever agreed to give—moments when grief, loss, or injustice breach the borders of our plans. They arrive uninvited, unmerciful, and unrelenting. And in those moments, we feel powerless—because we were powerless to stop what came.

But Maya Angelou doesn’t ask us to rewrite the past. She asks us to reclaim our authorship in the present. She reminds us that our truest power is not in preventing the storm, but in refusing to let it erase the core of who we are.

This isn’t resilience as armor. It’s resilience as refusal. A quiet, soul-deep decision: I will not let what has happened to me become the total sum of me.

To be reduced is to become smaller, less vibrant, less ourselves. To resist reduction is to insist on becoming, despite everything. It is an act of emotional rebellion. A reaching toward wholeness when the world has tried to shatter you.

Some days, all you can do is whisper, “I’m still here.” That’s enough. That’s everything.

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Reflective Prompt

Where in your life have you been quietly resisting reduction?
What part of your identity has remained intact, even when everything else changed?