
Three Years Since D-School
Marking the Close of the Alphabet & the Opening of a Deeper Rest

Three years ago today, I quietly completed Elijah House D-School — the last of what Clive affectionately calls my “Alphabet Schools.” With it, I ticked off “study” on my INVEST list, thinking it was the final tick of that box. What I didn’t realise was that each of those INVEST priorities would be visited, shaped, and refined in God’s perfect timing. Three years on, every one of them is now checked off — not in striving, but in surrender.
One week later I returned to serve.
Come to think of it, last year someone told me I looked "frumpy" when they first met me and that was already an improved version of me. I wonder what the impression would have been had they met me before my transformation.
I don’t seem to have many notes from that final week, just fragments of a powerful encounter that left no need for pages, only presence:
I lived with no boundaries with Mom and Dad since they were barely home, and too many with my stepdad including a 5pm bome and 8pm bed time in high school — bouncing between all four types of boundary distortions.
That whirlwind of emotional confusion echoed the Scripture:
📖 “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.” — Hosea 8:7 (NKJV)
I remembered Ophelia’s testimony hitting like a hammer — breaking things open.
Michelle saw me as a tree in blossom, each flower a facet of my God-given character. That image stayed.
Sheree’s words still ring like a gentle bell in my spirit:
“You are a human being, not a human doing.”
And then Kevin’s deeply personal prayer, almost like a whisper from heaven:
“Come, my child… my chosen one… my daughter. Stop doing. Rest in Him. The Father of Peace says, ‘My peace I give to you. My peace I leave with you.’ There is nothing wrong with you.”
That became a holy hush to my inner critic.
“Abide in Him. Breathe in Him. Rest in His Peace.”
He called me by name. Patrizia, a name that took 54 years to accept and embrace. He defined me.
Not by broken boundaries or past performance — but by belovedness.
Three years later, I’m still learning to “stay in that peace.”
Still learning that He goes before me.
Still letting Him show me the way.
I remembered how when I first told my dad in 2017 that I was struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts he asked what was wrong with be because I'd always been like that but I say again today, with a full and peaceful heart:
There is nothing wrong with me.
Only someone deeply loved, still blooming and still being transformed. 🌸
Dinsdag 22 Julie 2025
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