Rise from the Ashes: Choose the Life That’s Calling You

—Amber D. Cornett, LCSW, LAC

Sometimes the life you’ve built starts to feel like it’s built on lies. You look around and wonder how you got here.  You’ve done the work. You’ve stayed committed. You’ve believed in the dream of “what should be” so deeply that when you are forced to let it go you grapple with assumptions of failure, it feels earth shattering. You’re in the throes of what some may call a midlife crisis.  You feel wrecked – not fully burnt to the ground but left in ashes, nonetheless.

But, what if we refuse the crisis?  What if instead we radically accept an awakening? That term feels more aligned, more expansive. It’s not a crisis; it’s a reckoning. A rising. A shedding of the illusions we cling to in order to survive—and a conscious choice to walk toward the truest and most beautiful version of ourselves.

Don’t be fooled though—this awakening isn’t soft or easy. It’s raw. It’s fierce. It’s full of grief and grace. It’s the Universe shaking you awake.

It starts subtle, gentle taps— you begin to hear the quiet whispers of your own knowing—truth that’s been buried beneath betrayal, silence, people-pleasing, or the weight of staying strong. You are then more intentionally jolted into an awareness that the version of life you’ve been holding onto was more fiction than fact—a story shaped by your hopes, not your reality.  Then you are shook to your core.  The knowing awakens you— maybe it’s not failure at all, maybe it’s a death to all things not true, pure and beautiful enough.  Maybe it’s an end begging to be mourned.  Maybe it’s clarity.  Maybe it’s your rebirth.

You’re Not Alone in This

I know this space intimately. I’ve been forged in these fires.  I once believed that if I loved hard enough, forgave deeply enough, worked tirelessly enough—I'd be rewarded with the life I imagined: sacred vows kept, family whole, soul protected and cherished, peace earned through endurance.

But when the betrayal and disregard continued to wash over me like lava, what finally broke wasn’t just my capacity to trust in another person, I realized I was betraying myself. I had settled for living on fire— in a version of life that required me to stay small, silent, and self-sacrificing.

Maybe you’ve felt that, too…

This is your permission slip to stop clinging to what “should” have been… and start imagining what could be.

Here’s what it might look like:

You let go of the story that cost you your voice, your worth, your passion.

You feel the grief, and surrender to it—not because you're weak, but because you're ready.

You begin to rewrite your life from a place of power, not performance.

You show up for yourself and your children with compassion, not perfection.

You forgive, not because you forget the fire, but because you deserve safe air again.

You believe that the best version of your life hasn’t passed you by—it’s ahead of you.

Recover. Reclaim. Rebuild. Remember Who You Are. Rise!

If you’ve been living unseen, unheard, or undervalued, I want you to know: it doesn’t have to stay that way.  You can rise.  Rise from the ashes of what was and walk boldly into the life that’s calling you forward.

Not the life you were told you “should” want.

Not the life that requires your silent tolerance to survive.

Not the life that is willing to watch you burn.

But the life that honors your voice, your truth, your healing, your beauty.

You don’t have to have it all figured out yet. You just have to be willing to take the first step.

And maybe that first step is simply this:

Saying out loud, “This is not my story anymore. I get to choose something new.”

You are awake.

You are capable of doing hard things.

And the best? It may be just ahead.

If you're walking this path too, I’d be honored to walk alongside you. Reach out, choose yourself, and reclaim your most authentic self.