Hello, friend!

Welcome to Lauren’s Pen! I’m a twenty-something who calls the hills of Pennsylvania her home and who loves Jesus. I had severe health issues as a teenager that led to me being homebound and mostly bedridden for eight years. By God’s grace, I am much better now, but I am still healing. This Substack explores faith, trauma, and chronic illness and how they intersect. I particularly feel called to write as someone who in many ways isn’t in the dark valley anymore but who has found healing and hope. I want you to know that is possible too!

I desire to share how life can still be beautiful even after facing trauma and how we can rewire our brains to experience life with gratitude, joy, and courage. I have faced some very hard things, but they aren’t the only things that have happened to me. I try to view my trauma as not the thing that happened to me but instead as a thing that happened to me. I have been blessed with so much, including loving family and friends and a relationship with God. These blessings have served as big catalysts in the direction of my story, too.

Some days are still hard, but God is the author of my story. Faith in God includes faith in His timing, and I believe that beauty will continue to rise from the ashes.

Let’s be email friends.

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