Meet Pink Peony 36

I grew up in a suburban area of North Dallas in Texas with an older sister and younger brother - yes, i was the middle child peacekeeper. Weekdays were school, homework, and dance. Sundays were for church and football. My personal world was one of creative play and writing. I wanted to be a ballerina, author, or actress when I got older, even though I couldn’t memorize well and I was (and still am) a shortie. Sometimes dreams just don’t work out the way that we think they will.

One dream I had did come true. I always wanted to be a mom - more importantly a stay at home mom and homemaker. And I got to be one for 12 years! It looked a bit like I thought it would, filled with homeschooling, art projects, playdates, pool days, and the list goes on. I absolutely LOVED being a stay at home mom, but the marriage was not good. It was actually quite terrible.

So I found myself as the stereotypical middle-aged suburban single mom trying to make ends meet. And that’s where my story is now. I have spent the past five years exploring who I am. What do I know now? One thing is that i am a deeply - deeply - sensitive person. I’m talkin’ emapth-level sensitive. If I’m not careful, I will take on other people’s junk like an ant carrying a potato chip 100x its size. This does not serve me!

This sensitivity plays itself out pysically as fibromyalgia. My precious nervous system is super-sensitive to noise, heat and cold, stress, crowds, light, certain foods - you name it! Because of this, I have exhaustion like few have ever known, as well as wide-spread pain every. single. day. of my life. Some days are worse than others, but it’s always there. This pain and exhaustion effects my daily functioning, so I started on some pretty strong medicine during the summer of 2024. It has helped quite a lot, but there is so much breakthrough pain and inflammation that put limits on my life.

Why do I share this with you? Well, for one, I like to be transparent and authentic. This is a big part of what I go through on a daily basis. But more importantly, as I worked and parented, I found myself getting lost in the roles of professional and mom. People would ask me what my hobbies are and I was a deer caught in headlights! I had no life. I was just surviving. Therefore, I started asking myself what I enjoy doing. I began going on hikes where I enjoyed trees, plants, and watching little birds and squirrels scamper around. I began reading psychological thrillers. I began watching and making TikToks. And I began coloring in coloring books with colored pencils and crayons.

One night, as I lay scrolling on TikTok, I saw someone coloring with alchohol markers. I asked what they were and watched as the hues jumped onto the page and blended together and layered as shadows so beautifully. I decided to save up money to buy my first set of Ohuhu alchohol markers. When they arrived I was exstatic! I quickly organized them and swatched them, oohing and ahhing at every. single. precious. color. Then I began coloring and was not impressed with myself. Not one tiny bit. What I was doing was NOT what I saw on that live stream a few nights before. I shrugged it off and kept coloring at night, listening to audiobooks as I went.

Fast forward to this past October. I woke up in the middle of the night, like I typically do, and decided to get up and color until I felt tired again. I remembered all the content creators on TikTok who would live stream while coloring and decided that I would try it for myself. Maybe I would have fun. So I started my stream and was tickled as viewers joined me, giving me color suggestions and wanting to know how my night was going. We started chatting and I got to laugh and have fun learning about other people. After 2 hours and a bunch of music and chatting, I had a colored page and a huge smile on my face. I was hooked. I had found my hobby - not just coloring, but coloring live!

Through this activity, I have made some dear friends, grown in my coloring abilities, created an online Discord community, and learned that even on days when I'm stressed from work, exhausted from lack of sleep, and in pain from my fibromyalgia, I can finish with the fun and refreshment of visiting with friends as I color my lil' heart out. To say that my life is looking better each day would be an understatement. PLEASE follow along in my journey with me. I promise to live in authenticity and share it all - the highs and the lows.