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Morning Rituals

Martha Madrigal
3 min readMar 26, 2023

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Sunday Morning With Martha

For most of my life I timed getting out of bed in the morning with the least amount of time needed to get out the door and get where I needed to be. I was frequently late for work… and stuff.

I did not love myself, and I hated the wardrobe of those years. Another polo shirt and khakis felt like defeat of the highest order. Every. Time.

But I had a higher calling. I had kids to raise. Those two beautiful souls kept me alive even as I worked menial and sometimes demeaning jobs. Getting parenting as right as I could was my highest priority. They gave me a reason to live and to keep going.

And in a flash they were off living their lives as I swept up the ashes of a second marriage’s end.

And there I was.

Without the person I thought was the great love of my life. Without my daily reason to keep going. Working a job I despised for an impossible human, still going through the motions with the polos and khakis, deeply sad inside.

I tried to treat that time as an adventure. I focused far more on self care and far more on finding my peace in the new normal. It wasn’t long before I came out as queer.

Tara Brach had said whatever my secret was, it was the thing that would set me free. Who doesn’t want to be “free?”

The thing about authenticity is

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Martha Madrigal
Martha Madrigal

Written by Martha Madrigal

Trans Artivist/Writer/Humorist ~ co-host of “Full Circle (The Podcast) with Charles Tyson, Jr. & Martha Madrigal.” Rarely shuts up.

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