Life Is a Journey

When life's unexpected turns become the places where faith, compassion, and purpose are born.

By Malikka D. Karteron

"Not making a decision is a decision."

Those seven words have stayed with me for years.

I wasn't sitting in a classroom or attending a conference when I heard them. I was sitting on a quiet beach in Cuba beside a friend whose life had suddenly become defined by impossible choices.

She had, had an unexpected hysterectomy.

Years later, another woman shared a remarkably similar story. She, too, had to make the painful decision to have a hysterectomy because of cancer. Neither woman had children before choosing the surgery that would ultimately save her life.

That conversation taught me something profound: life rarely asks permission before changing our plans. Sometimes our greatest acts of courage are not found in the paths we choose but in the paths, we never imagined we would have to walk.

When Celebration Becomes Sorrow

There are moments in life that divide time into "before" and "after."

One of those moments came many years ago.

I had traveled across the country to celebrate the upcoming birth of my friend's second child. The baby shower was filled with laughter, hope, tiny clothes, and conversations about the future. Like every celebration of new life, it was filled with anticipation.

After returning to Los Angeles, I called to let everyone know I had arrived safely.

Instead of hearing my friend's voice, her sister answered the phone.

Her words still echo in my heart.

"The baby will never take his first breath."

Within hours, I was booking another flight back across the country.

The balloons had barely deflated before funeral plans replaced baby plans.

No family should ever have to experience that kind of heartbreak.

Love Looks Different in Moments of Grief

Some memories never leave you.

One that remains vivid is walking through Walmart with my friend's husband's cousin to buy a breast pump.

My friend's body had prepared to nourish the baby she would never hold.

The physical pain could be eased.

The emotional pain could not.

Even today, she carries the love of a mother whose child never took his first breath.

I also remember watching her husband.

He tried to be strong for everyone around him while quietly grieving the loss of his son. What remains etched in my memory is the small Bible he kept beside him in the car.

Sometimes faith doesn't remove the pain.

Sometimes it simply gives us the strength to survive it.

The Dreams We Carry

Like many young girls, I imagined that one day I would marry and become a mother.

I dreamed about raising children, reading bedtime stories, helping with homework, cheering from the sidelines, and creating a home filled with love.

But alongside those dreams came fear.

What if I wasn't a good mother?

What if I couldn't help my children through life's challenges?

What if they weren't healthy?

And perhaps the question that haunted me most:

What would happen to them when I was no longer here?

Life has a way of reminding us that love and fear often exist side by side.

Lessons from My Family

Some of my earliest lessons about resilience came from my own family.

I remember seeing my mother after giving birth to my younger brother. Her eyes were bloodshot from pushing so hard. She later shared that the nurse had climbed onto her stomach to help deliver him because he simply would not descend.

The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck.

Looking back, I realize that what seemed like a delay may very well have saved his life.

As the years passed, we discovered that certain genetic conditions affected the boys in our family more significantly than the girls.

When my brother was only three years old, he underwent open-heart surgery.

Years later, at thirty-three, he would face another.

I still remember seeing that tiny little boy, my baby brother, lying in a hospital bed surrounded by tubes and machines.

Even then...

He was a fighter.

Every Journey Has Purpose

The older I become, the more I realize that life rarely unfolds according to our carefully written plans.

Some dreams become reality.

Others evolve.

Some chapters overflow with celebration.

Others are written in tears.

Yet every chapter contributes to the story God is writing.

Every person we encounter leaves footprints on our hearts.

Every hardship deepens our compassion.

Every unanswered question stretches our faith.

Looking back over my own journey, I realize that the experiences I once questioned became the very experiences that taught me how to comfort others.

They taught me how to listen.

How to show up.

How to love people through unimaginable pain.

Walking Forward with Gratitude

I don't know exactly where this journey called life will take me.

I don't know what tomorrow holds.

But I know this:

I am grateful.

Grateful for every blessing God has entrusted to me.

Grateful for the people who have invited me into both their celebrations and their sorrows.

Grateful for the lessons that have strengthened my faith, expanded my compassion, and reminded me that even when life doesn't make sense, God is still present.

Life is not defined by how smooth the road becomes.

It is defined by how faithfully we continue walking.

And perhaps that is the greatest lesson of all.

Because life is, and always will be, a journey.

One step.

One season.

One blessing at a time.

Malikka D. Karteron (MDK) - Playing Soccer / Football at a beach in Cuba

Photo Credit: Photo Credit: Jacqueline Coifield - J'Reve International Founder

Reflection

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." — Proverbs 3:5–6

No matter where your journey has taken you—or where it leads tomorrow—may you never lose hope. Sometimes the road we never wanted becomes the path that shapes us into the people we were always meant to become.