I am chatting with my friend “Trixie.”

She tells me that she has met a few women lately who are re-emerging in their lives.

“They are some bad-ass women,” says Trixie. “I want to be bad-ass again.”

“I want to be bad-ass again, too,” I say back.

I hang up the phone. Later I drive to the center of town. I sit at the stop light and a tree catches my eye. It’s the same tree it’s always been. It’s always been on the corner only now it’s decorated for Easter just as it was for St. Patrick’s Day and Christmas.

This run of the mill tree in this greatly wooded, country town now shines.

I used to shine.

Now I am just one of the many trees.

I am struggling to re-emerge in my life. Why? Because I paid a high price for staying in a failing marriage for too long. I lost my shine.

I lost my bad-ass.

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