The Moment That Changes Everything

We move so quickly through life. We check boxes, rush from one thing to the next, and try to keep it all together. But sometimes, something stops us in our tracks. A loss, a hard season, or a moment that shakes us awake and reminds us of the sacredness of it all.

That’s what this week’s Living Inspired episode/blog is about: not hormones or health, but something deeper: what it means to stop, find stillness, and let life’s hardest moments transform us.

Finding Stillness in the Hard Things

It’s too easy to just keep going. But when we experience loss, we’re invited to pause, to reflect, not only on who or what we’ve lost but also on how these experiences can change us for the better.

I believe this is what life is really about: taking moments of stillness to stand in the reverence of life itself.

Remembering Maria

This week marks six years since I lost one of the greatest friends I’ve ever had, Maria.

We met in middle school when we were 12. We instantly connected, the kind of friendship that stays steady through every season. We used to try on each other’s shoes just to laugh about how mine were three sizes smaller than hers.

Maria was light and love embodied. She had a way of making everyone feel seen. At her memorial service, one of our friends said she “collected people.” It was true. She made everyone around her feel like they mattered.

She was diagnosed with colon cancer at 31, just three months after having her baby. I was pregnant with my son at the time. The news shook me to my core. You never expect something like that to happen so young, especially to someone who radiated so much goodness.

Even as she fought cancer, Maria kept showing up for people. She’d visit me while going through chemotherapy. She lived her life with purpose, and even as she was dying, she was teaching me how to live.

Lessons From Grief

When Maria passed, I was in my last year of nursing school. I used to wear her sunglasses every time I had to face something hard; it was my quiet way of carrying her courage.

Losing her changed me forever.

Grief cracks you open. It reminds you of the shortness of life and how easily we take everyday moments for granted. But it also gives you perspective. It calls you to live with intention.

That’s what Maria gave me, the realization that healing isn’t just about avoiding illness. It’s about how we live while we’re here.

The Connection Between Life and Death

Even now, as I work with women on health and healing, I still serve in hospice care. Some people might see that as opposite ends of the spectrum, life and death, but to me, they’re deeply connected.

Sitting beside someone at the end of their life keeps me grounded in what truly matters. It reminds me that being alive is a sacred gift. And when I support people who are dying, I think of Maria. I think of my dad, who I lost five years later. Their lives inspire the work I do today, to help others live fully, peacefully, and in tune with their bodies and their purpose.

If you ever have the opportunity, I encourage you to volunteer with hospice. It’s one of the most powerful ways to rediscover gratitude for life.

Living Inspired: Honoring the Gift of Being Alive

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably experienced loss, too. It changes us. But that change can be beautiful when we allow it to soften us, to open our hearts instead of closing them.

That’s what it means to live inspired.

The word “inspired” literally means “to be breathed into.” The very breath in your lungs is proof of the miracle that you’re here.

So what if we lived as though every breath, every gray hair, every wrinkle was a reminder of grace?

What if we saw this season of life not as decline, but as expansion, a chance to love deeper and live truer?

Because grief never fully leaves. It ebbs and flows like an ocean wave. But maybe it’s meant to.

Grief is love with nowhere to go.

Today, I’m choosing to let that love move me, to live fully, love deeply, and remember the sacredness of it all.

A Moment for You

If you’ve lost someone who has shaped who you are, take a moment today to honor them.

Light a candle.

Take a walk.

Say their name.

Remember their light.

And remember: you’re still here. Your life is still a gift.

Thank you for being here, for listening and reading, and for living inspired.

Lots of love,

Rachel

About Rachel Carta

Rachel Carta is a Registered Nurse, Functional Nutrition Counselor, and Life Coach who helps women in midlife reclaim their energy, calm, and vitality by getting to the root of their symptoms, without strict protocols or overwhelm. Learn more at RachelCartaRN.com or connect on Instagram @peaceinperimenopause.