This episode wasn’t planned.
It arrived.

In a quiet moment at the kitchen table, just minutes before pressing record, I felt my mom step in and ask to be heard. What followed is one of the most honest, emotional, and unfiltered conversations I’ve ever shared.

This episode is about staying and leaving, and the unseen cost of both choices. It’s a love letter to someone who found the courage to walk away just yesterday, a message for someone who feels stuck and may not yet realize it, and a direct message from my mom for the one who already knows—deep inside—what it will take to make the pain stop.

It’s also a reflection from me — someone who has lived through all sides of staying and leaving. Someone who has seen what happens when people stay, when they leave, and when they stand at the beginning unsure of which way to go. In this episode, I’m here alongside my mother, holding space for each of them as they navigate their own path — not in judgment, but in recognition.

This isn’t about right or wrong.
It’s about seeing the pattern, understanding why we’re drawn into certain roles, and honoring the truth that we’re not placed in each other’s lives by accident.

In this episode, we explore:

• The emotional toll of staying in relationships that are already broken
• How generational trauma quietly repeats itself
• Why guilt and hope often keep people trapped longer than love
• The difference between fixing something and sacrificing yourself
• And what it truly means to choose your life

This message is channeled, unscripted, and deeply personal.

If something in this episode resonates with you, trust that it found you for a reason.

Some relationships can be healed.
Some require leaving.
And some require the courage to finally choose yourself.

The Grief Nobody Talks About: When Work Was Family

This episode is raw.

In this deeply personal conversation, I share the story of how my husband and I met at work, built our life around a place that once felt like family, and what happens when that sense of belonging slowly disappears.

This is not a story about blame, companies, or decisions. It’s about the kind of grief people rarely name. The grief that comes when work is more than a paycheck. When it’s identity, purpose, routine, and community. And what happens to a person, and a family, when that is taken away after decades of loyalty.

We talk about how this kind of loss shows up quietly. In forgetfulness. In irritability. In animals acting out. In a household feeling heavy before anyone has words for it. We talk about what it’s like to watch someone you love feel defeated, disconnected from their sense of worth, and unsure of who they are without the role they lived inside of for so long.

This episode is about invisible grief.
It’s about love, identity, and rebuilding.
And it’s about hope that doesn’t erase the pain, but opens a new door.

If you or someone you love is navigating job loss, career upheaval, or the quiet grief that comes with starting over, this episode is for you.

You are not failing.
You are not broken.
And you are not alone.

In this episode of the Eleven Intuitions Podcast, Melissa sits down with author Sara Escobar for an honest, thoughtful conversation about writing as a lifeline, navigating loss, and finding meaning after life changes you forever.

Sara shares the stories behind her poetry collections Old Flames and Wildflowers and Ashes & Stardust: What Comes After, reflecting on heartbreak, grief, love, memory, and the quiet ways we learn to carry what we’ve lost. Together, they explore how words can hold what feels impossible to say, how creativity becomes a form of healing, and what it looks like to keep moving forward without pretending everything is “fixed.”

This episode isn’t about rushing through pain or tying life up neatly. It’s about truth, tenderness, and the space we give ourselves to feel, reflect, and keep writing our way through whatever comes next.

If you’ve ever turned to words to survive, understand yourself, or make sense of change, this conversation will resonate deeply.

Find information about Sara's books and socials on her linktree here: https://linktr.ee/sarasunshine_