Welcome home, I'm Dr. Tama, a minister, licensed psychologist and sacred artist.

And this is Homecoming, a podcast to facilitate your journey home to yourself.

While I will provide weekly inspiration and mental health tips, this podcast is not the same as personalized therapy.

I'm so excited you're on the journey.

If you want to request specific topics or to submit a poem for me to read on the podcast, email me at homecomingpodcastsatgmail.com.

Also, to build our community, don't forget to like, subscribe and share. Let's begin.

Welcome home co-journers. I'm glad you're here for another episode. And I'm excited we have a poem submission on this week.

And this week's poem is from Leah. And the poem is entitled Little Flower, grew in the space between.

I grew in the space between. I grew from the unknown. I grew from pain and regret. A cave that is dark and damp. I have made it my home. I had no other option.

The darkness tried to consume me. Evil made me its prey. Betrayal at my doorstep. The sting of heartbreak ever fresh on my lips.

The roar of love burning my lungs. Through everything I have been through, I was able to grow.

I grew in the space between. I grew from the unknown. I grew from pain and regret. I grew into a little flower.

How blessed am I? How loved am I? There is no flower on this earth loved more than me. Through it all, it was love that sustained me.

Love shined down on me. I grew close to the sun. Now nothing stands between my love and I.

I love so great I was transformed. I love that made me a little flower, a little flower who grew in a cave and was painted with gold.

Yes, oh my goodness. I love it growing in the cave, growing in the aftermath of the pain, the regret, the heartbreak, the isolation.

Leah, thank you so much for your poem. I really appreciate it and it is an alignment with today's topic, which is growing after pain.

We're growing after painful circumstances and situations and we have all had painful experiences, emotionally painful experiences, some people physically or spiritually painful experiences.

So whatever that circumstance was and I should even say whatever that circumstance is because some of you are listening on today and you are currently in that place of pain.

And so I want to say a couple of things about growing either in the midst of or in the aftermath of pain, growing in the midst of or in the aftermath of pain.

And so the first thing I want to name is the importance of giving yourself permission to be authentic.

And being authentic really has two components to it. The first is being authentic about where you are in your healing process or healing journey, where you are with the pain.

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