Shannon Eichenauer Writer

Forgive your damn self and embrace who you are right now. That’s what I did. Sometimes showing up is two minutes. Sometimes two minutes feels impossible. I’ve been there, and there were the days when I believed I wasn’t worth even that.

Even If I’m Just an Echo I don’t often reach out in this way. There’s always that quiet fear of not hearing back of sending something out and being met with silence. But this year, if you remember, I promised myself that c…

https://mommyrhetoricwrites.com/2026/01/04/a-letter-to-my-healing-my-sacred-syllabus/

In an effort to give you more than my daily prose, I’m going to try something new by sharing my monthly curriculum. My sacred syllabus. These are the things I gently take on for the month.

A letter to my healing: My Sacred Syllabus Dear Self, Thank you for choosing this path to healing. Slow reading, books, podcasts, journal prompts that allow you to live inside the pages of a new outlook or place has been paramount to the he…

https://mommyrhetoricwrites.com/2026/01/02/the-quiet-unkindness-we-live-with/

It is the practice of meeting yourself (and others)where you actually are and not where you think you should be. Not the polished version and not the aspirational version. Over the years I have gotten exhausted by the idea of aspirational and the pressure to be that. For me it became about being the real version of me who often exists in the quiet dullness of everyday life.

The Quiet Unkindness We Live With Today I was met with LOVINGKINDNESS as it is explained by Tara Brach in Radical Acceptance as, “The intention and capacity to care about suffering one’s own and others’ with tenderness and go…

"This new year is asking something different of me and I'd like to ask that you allow it to ask something differently of you. We don't need to change or hope for a better version of us. When we embody what it is we hope to be we just get better. So what if...who you are today is enough to be a better version of you tomorrow, and the trust and belief that that statement is true."

The Sacred Act of Staying: Cor This new year is asking something different of me and I’d like to ask that you allow it to ask something differently of you. We don’t need to change or hope for a better version of us. …

"Instead of resistance or anger, I met the moment with something closer to neutrality. I am a crash survivor. I live with pain. Not the kind that resolves neatly, but the kind that requires attention, patience, and ongoing care."

A love letter to my healing…Handle with Care When you stop fighting the experience, the world can change. It becomes lighter, easier to take in. You realize you are a speck in this big, huge place and your resistance only adds weight to the i…

"It is an absolute privilege to hold the stories of others so deeply. It is an honor to sit with someone in their fear, their grief, their confusion, their hope. But that privilege comes with responsibility the responsibility to stay mindful of the self, so I don’t absorb what isn’t mine, and so I can keep showing up from a place of grounded presence."

Embodiment of Divine Purpose ~ A morning ritual Every morning at 4:02 a.m., my alarm sounds with gentle bells. I roll over, hit my ten-minute snooze, and settle onto my back. I take one long breath and prepare myself for the day ahead. I started…

https://mommyrhetoricwrites.com/2025/12/02/i-choose-to-become/

"Now let me be clear:
the victim in me exists.
I do not pretend she’s gone or healed or irrelevant.
She is a part of me.
She reminds me to honor the dark, because we cannot be light without knowing it."

I Choose to Become There’s a quote I read this morning that hit me hardand now that I’ve spent time studying the work behind it,it means something entirely different: “I am not what happened to me,I am what I choose …

https://mommyrhetoricwrites.com/2025/12/01/facing-the-arrows-of-mara-through-querencia/

"Because for most of my life, I didn’t have a querencia.
Or maybe I did, but I abandoned it in the chaos of trauma, caregiving, survival, and staying strong for everyone else. I learned to live in the tension always braced for impact, always preparing for the next wave of hard."

Facing the Arrows of Mara through Querencia This AM as I read Radical Acceptance from Tara Brach she began discussing the Buddha teaching of facing the arrows of Mara which is essentially facing the dark parts of ourselves that convince us w…

https://mommyrhetoricwrites.com/2025/11/30/letters-to-my-healing/

"You’re learning to ask for what you need. You’re learning to accept what you deserve. You’re trying to hold onto this idea of worthiness that still feels a little unfamiliar. People tell you you’re worthy. They tell you you’re loved.

And maybe for the first time, you’re starting to believe it."

Letters to My Healing… Dear Sunday Self, You’re standing in a strange and awkward place in your healing one that took four long, exhausting years to reach. A place shaped by a car accident and a lifetime of traumas that …

https://mommyrhetoricwrites.com/2025/08/24/in-the-midst-of-change/

"That is the alchemy I carry into every room I enter, every soul I encounter, every truth I speak. It is not perfection. It is not performance. It is authenticity fierce, flawed, faithful. And it is enough."

In the midst of change. I wake up every day and walk into a space where I get to say, “Here I am.”I answer the text or the call with, “How can I make this moment better for you?” I speak in truths. Truths handed out like …

https://mommyrhetoricwrites.com/2025/08/09/inspire-the-day-among-the-trees/

"Long before my journey began in hiking, the last few years I have found respite in the fluttering leaves and falling in love with the wisdom of the beautiful beings that continue to stand the test of the elements, humans, and the world, and somehow manage to stay intact. We could learn a thing or two from them, yes?"

Inspire the Day: Among the Trees I’ve always been a treehugger of sorts. I seek out the quietness and dark that can happen when you sit underneath a tree. Long before my journey began in hiking the last few years I have foun…

https://mommyrhetoricwrites.com/2025/08/08/when-your-world-is-shattered-no-one-hears-it/

"I see and sit with others in their pain. I see and sit with my own.
Then, I get up. I walk. I live this miracle life the best I can."

When your world is shattered no one hears it. This sound this morning it’s hard to hear.It brought immediate chills and shivers because my body knows.It will always know. My foot was there, cold and uncovered. Socks within reach. A blanket nea…