This episode marks a return to the podcast after a profound personal loss. In September 2025, my mother died suddenly. Since then, my world - personally, professionally, relationally - has shifted in ways I’m still coming to understand. In this episode, I speak gently and honestly about grief, responsibility, and what it's meant to me to try and continue with my work without over-functioning or disappearing. I reflect on what it means to show up 'good enough' in seasons where capacity and pace are altered, and how we might continue mothering, working, and creating. I also share excerpts from an article I’ve written honouring my mother’s life and work, reflecting on 5 lessons my mum taught me. In this episode I explore: - What it means to return to creative and professional work after profound loss - Grief as an ongoing, embodied process - Liminality: living in a space that doesn’t “close” or come to neat completion - The tension between authenticity, boundaries, and public-facing work - Showing up without over-functioning, performing, or abandoning yourself - Lessons in resilience, meaning-making, and care learned through relationship - Creativity, imagination, and art as sustaining practices - Love as a transcendent, relational force mETAphor journal for English teachers - https://www.englishteacher.com.au/resources/categories?id=82