The biggest story I wasn't allowed to share (but now I can)

Rachel is back after the longest break she's ever taken from anything annnnnnd she's finally able to explain why she left!

Her husband was deployed with hours of notice, on their son's fifth birthday. Whomp, whomp. What followed was a summer of solo parenting with no end date, no countdown, and no way to talk about most of it publicly. For someone who has built her entire career on telling you the truth about her ordinary days, having the biggest story of her life and not being able to share it changed how she thinks about her work, her family, and what's actually hers to give away.

In this episode she catches you all the way up: the hardest part of the whole season, the realization that changed how she parents through hard things, what she had to keep private and why privacy isn't hiding, the fifty neighbors who lined her street with American flags when he came home, the phone call from NBC Nightly News, the cursed family beach trip, and eight chickens.

There are four reflection questions built in, so grab a pen or get ready to replay this one! This one isn't just her summer yap sesh!!

Next week: how to ask for help without apologizing for existing, and how to build the kind of friendships that can actually carry you. OOOOOOOF.

If this episode meets you where you are, rate the show and send it to one person running a marathon with no finish line right now.

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