Marly Unmarginated

I’ve made mistakes.

Big ones. Small ones. Loud ones that echoed. Quiet ones that gnawed at me in the dark The kind that keep you up at night replaying every detail, and the kind that sneak up years later with a sting of ” I should’ve known better.”

And you know what? I regret them. I really do.

But, I’m also learning to see regret as something other than a chain around my ankles. I’m learning to see it as a compass, pointing me toward growth, toward grace, toward a better version of myself.

Because here’s the truth, we’re human. Not flawless, not immune to weakness or misjudgment, not born with a rulebook titled How to Get It All Right the First Time.

We’re meant to learn. We’re meant to fall short. We’re meant to mess up and then rise, humbler, wiser and softer.

What matters most isn’t whether you’ve stumbled. It is what you do after the fall.

Do you take ownership? Do you apologize? Do you seek to understand the damage and begin repairing the pieces, even if some can’t be put back the same? That’s where the soul shines.

But here’s the part we forget in a world quick to cancel, criticize, and categorize: Making a mistake does not make you a bad person. It makes you…a person.

We all want grace when it’s our turn to mess up, but we sometimes forget to extend that same grace to others. We slap labels on people based on the worst chapter of their story and forget that redemption is real. Growth is real. Forgiveness is not only possible, it is necessary.

Let people repent.

Let people apologize.

Let God do the judging.

He is way better at it than we are.

I am not the sum of my missteps. You are not defined by your past. We are evolving, rewriting and rebuilding…brick by brick, heart by heart.

So if you have been carrying the weight of regret, maybe it is time to set it down. Use it, yes, but don’t let it use you. Let it teach you, guide you and remind you of your humanness and your holiness.

And if someone else is in the process of learning their lesson, maybe don’t slam the door. Maybe don’t freeze-frame them in that one bad moment. You don’t have to forget but you can choose to forgive. You can choose to believe in the possibility of change. Because honestly, haven’t you needed that, too?

None of us are perfect.

And grace isn’t just a gift, it’s a bridge. One we all need to cross again and again.

So be kind to yourself. Be kind to others. Let the past shape you, but not shackle you. Let it be the soil, not the sentence.

And keep going.

With a little more understanding. A lot more softness. And a whole lot of heart.

Where messy meets meaningful and magic lives in the margins…Marly