A year of unexpected change

A year ago, I wasn't looking for this. I wasn't looking for anything, really. I was content with my adventures - the sea spray on my face, the rush of air beneath me, the freedom of charting my own course. Single, independent, and perfectly happy with that.

Then everything shifted.

A year down the line and I'm engaged to be married! The woman who once found her thrills in the ocean and the sky now spends her evenings watching films or listening to music, threading beads into bracelets and hanging out with the most brilliant and funny human. It sounds like a different person's life, doesn't it? Some days, I can hardly believe it myself.

Not everyone has come along for the ride. Some friends have walked beside me through every twist and turn, celebrating the changes and embracing this new version of me. Others have drifted away, and whilst that's been difficult, I've come to understand that not everyone is meant to journey with us through every chapter. It's been one of the hardest lessons this year has taught me.

There's been plenty of soul searching, questioning who I am now, whether I was losing parts of myself or simply discovering new ones. The truth is, it's been both. I've had to dig deep, to reconcile the adventurer I was with the person I'm becoming. It hasn't always been easy, but it's always been worth it.

What I've realised it that this IS an adventure. It's just a different kind. The excitement I once found in adrenaline and exploration, I now find in building a life with someone I love. In discovering new passions. In creating something that's entirely ours.

I'm happy. Genuinely, deeply happy. Content in a way I never expected to be, living a life I never saw coming. And whilst there are undoubtedly more challenges ahead, more soul searching to do, I'm ready for it.

This is my new story, my new adventure. And I can't wait to see where it takes me.

By

Maggie Martin 

Still Wild at Heart ❤️ 

I Waited

 I Waited...

I stayed single, 

until I knew the difference

between attention that sparkled and faded

and affection that stayed when the screen went dark.

I waited until I no longer needed

someone else's words

to prove I was worthy.

I already was.

The love I gave my children,

the strength it took to rise each morning,

the peace I was building brick by brick

that was my proof.

I stayed single

until my life felt full

in the quiet moments,

until my home held laughter,

my weekends held joy,

my heart held calm.

I didn't wait for rescue.

I became my own arriving.

I stayed single

until the wounds had closed,

until I could speak of the past

without bleeding,

without bitterness,

without needing to convince myself

it wasn't that bad.

I waited until my boundaries

were not walls, but gates

ones I opened and closed

without guilt,

without fear,

without hesitation

when someone forgot

I was sacred.

I stayed single

until my children saw me

choosing peace over chaos,

teaching them by living it,

what love looks like,

what it feels like,

what they should never settle for.

I waited for the steady kind.

The kind that doesn't compete

with my peace,

but protects it.

The kind that feels like calm,

like safety,

like coming home

to a home I'd already built.

When that love came,

it didn't complete me

I was already whole.

It simply walked beside me,

steady and sure,

into the life I'd created

whilst I was brave enough

to wait. 

The Wild Colours of Us

We live and love in wild colours,

no half-measures, no pale imitations.

Passion isn't gentle here, it's a full blaze,

the kind that warms and sometimes scorches.

We are friction and laughter intertwined,

learning through the sparks we strike,

expanding in the space where chaos

kisses calm and neither wins.

You are a force I cannot tame,

nor would I want to!

and learning to let you burn bright

whilst keeping my own roots deep

is its own exquisite work.

We move differently, you and I,

but the push between us is not division,

it's the call to stretch, to rise,

to meet each other, changed.

I'm grateful for the whole of it,

the beauty and the mess, 

the fire and the play,

the way we always, somehow,

find our way back home to love.

We're learning new love languages,

softer words for harder moments,

tools to hold each other through the heat,

to listen deeper, stay longer,

to choose each other, again and again.

And I'm proud of that.

Proud of how we keep showing up,

how we meet in the wild middle

and refuse to let go of each other ❤️

Nearly one year on...

A year ago, I wasn't looking. Wasn't interested. Had no intention of letting anyone in. Funny how life works, isn't it?

Then the universe decided to prove me spectacularly wrong.

Sometimes the best things in life are the ones we never see coming. The unexpected plot twists that completely rewrite our story. The people who show up when we least expect it and somehow become everything we didn't know we needed.

We're not your conventional couple, and that's exactly how it should be. His weird matches my weird in ways I never knew were possible. We make perfect sense in our beautifully chaotic way.

Here's to the unexpected. To letting life surprise us. To finding someone whose brand of strange fits perfectly with yours. To saying "I wasn't looking" and then finding exactly what you didn't know you needed.

Life's funny like that. And I wouldn't change a single thing. 💛 

Enough

Enough

I am not a polished stone,  

smooth and gleaming in the light

I am rough around the edges,  

full of flaws that catch the sight.

My words sometimes stumble,  

my steps don't always land,  

I carry doubt like pebbles  

in the hollow of my hand.

But in this sweet imperfection,  

in these cracks where love seeps through,  

I find I am sufficient

broken, beautiful, and true.

For perfect is a prison  

that no soul was meant to fill.  

I am enough, just as I am,  

and I think I always will.

We will always be ok

We Will Always Be Ok - Remember this on your darkest days, and let it bring light.

When the shadows lengthen across our path,

And doubt creeps in like an evening mist,

When storms rage fierce and our voices clash,

Hold fast to this... we will persist.

Through sleepless nights and heavy days,

When hope seems gone and you're feeling raw,

Remember our love always finds ways

to kindle flames, they're worth fighting for.

In quiet moments, hand in hand,

we'll weather both gales and gentle rain,

Together we will always stand,

Through joy and sorrow, loss and gain.

So if the world feels cold and grey,

And darkness threatens to take hold,

Let these words chase your fears away...

We will always be ok, you're my heart, my life, my soul.

Love like ours runs deep and true,

A constant star in quickly shifting skies,

Whatever comes, we'll see it through

Together, our love will never die.

When nothing makes sense

The biscuit tin's gone fishing with a purple Thursday,

While my kettle's having words with the neighbour's cat.

The postman delivered seventeen clouds today,

And I've hung my umbrella on a bowler hat.

My wellies are discussing quantum physics,

With a marmalade jar that speaks Welsh.

The garden gate's gone off to join the circus,

And my teacup's writing novels on the shelf.

The weather forecast called for scrambled eggs,

But all we got was sideways-falling rain.

My bicycle's developed chicken legs,

And the bus stop's gone completely mad again.

So I'll pop the kettle on for half past blue,

And wait for sense to knock upon my door...

Though knowing luck, it'll likely be a shoe

That's come to hoover the
crumbs up off the floor.