Ink Speak with Maverick Malone

No one gets married thinking they will one day get divorced, but sometimes it's just what happens. Now that I'm on the other side of it, I'm finally able to open up - in depth - about my codependency and people pleasing that kept me in a relationship longer than I should, and the journey towards the monumental decision of finally leaving that 14 year relationship and getting a divorce.There's such a stigma around divorce and in this episode, I'm going to break it all down. Divorce does not have to be a thing to be terribly feared. Divorce can be a beautiful experience because of the lessons it brings, depending on the lens you view it through. It seems everyone will try to get you to stay but no one will encourage you to go when it’s honestly what you’ve been leaning towards but have been too ashamed to say (or even entertain as a thought). But the fact is, no one is going to grant that wish but you. It’s a hard truth to even come to if it’s been simmering somewhere in there.With this episode, I want to offer you a glimmer of hope and maybe a bit of that encouragement that you can do this (if you decide it's the right move). By telling my story and how things have been for me since the divorce and the immense growth and healing I have experienced, I hope that you too can find the strength to choose your "more" and chase your dreams, if divorce or a breakup has been hiding in the back of your mind.So if you are like I was, using the shower to drown out the sound of your own tears, crying silently after he’s fallen asleep, feeling the silence eating away at your being, slowly dissolving, wishing you felt things more deeply, asking yourself is this really all there is, wanting wanting wanting - maybe it really is time to leave. Or at the very least, allow yourself to explore those big feelings. None of them are shameful, despite what society, tradition or religion may say.It's your life, and you are absolutely entitled to a happy and fulfilling one.

"This is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends - not with a bang" ...but with a glimmer.Today's episode asks us to reflect on the state of our world, the role we are currently playing in it, and where its future lies. We are at an incredibly pivotal time here, and if we want to see any kind of positive change, it has to start with us, in our minds and with what we believe to be true - about ourselves, about others, about what we can do.Just as this final line of Eliot's poem (that I amended) describes, about this interim state between life and death, so too do we meet here as well, at the end of one thing and the beginning of another, hanging between, being asked to think. To believe. After all, what is an idea once it has been conceived but before it has been implemented? It's possibility. It's potential. It's energy.If you're someone out there who is holding out hope for this world and wants to do whatever you can to turn the tides toward positive and radical change, I think there's something here for you. And at the very least - there's a poem.You can read the full Chattanooga Holistic Medicine article by Blake Storey referenced in this episode by going to https://www.chattanoogaholisticmedicine.com/post/soulful-sundays-holy-shibboleth

Have you ever thought, “There has to be more to life than this”? You’re not alone. I had this same thought before I decided to leave a 14 year relationship and choose myself for the first time.Join me, author and poet Maverick Malone @mavmalone, as I recount stories of that transformational journey, one that began with a very powerful shower-thought download instructing, “Go out into the world. Make your own mistakes. Learn. Grow. Then come back and tell everyone what you know.”This is me, answering that call with a podcast, where storytelling and poetry meet the human experience in an effort to connect, teach, and inspire. Ink Speak turns written word into spoken word, douses it in magic, and leaves room for interpretation. Each week, I will open with a poem or story relevant to the episode’s topic: divorce, motherhood, vulnerability, authenticity, and navigating change to name a few. Nothing is off limits, so you never know what kind of story might be spun.Ink Speak reminds us what it is to be human, in all its messy and poetic glory, but at its heart, it’s always been about connecting through the power of words.