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:

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. 🌸