Welcome to My Life of Mayhem & Mercy

A Solo Journey

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About the Author

Years ago "my ride or die" friend jokingly referred to us Mayhem & Mercy. As 2022 arrived and I took stock of my life and the paths I have walked, I have to believe that I am both Mayhem & Mercy, and that my dear friend was just being kind when she included herself in the tagline.

I have walked the path of single motherhood for almost two decades. Sometimes with another but ultimately it has been a solo journey into the depths of how to survive in a world that doesn't always seem welcoming and always seems to have a point to prove.

Remaining positive, strong, optimistic, and engaged is a trial in strength and will power when the edges begin to crumble and the darkness threatens to engulf you whole.

I invite you to walk this path beside me as I, yet again, find my new center and which way is up.

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I'm Tired.

I'm tired. It's fairly simple to state. Two small words that hold such a vast amount of meaning. Two words that are embedded with decades of innumerable moments that culminated in...I'm tired. During a recent conversation with a very dear loved one it was pointed out to me that I have a very fortunate life. And while I do not disagree with that statement on some levels, there are a multitude of other levels that I feel I am very unfortunate. Maybe even disadvantaged. Sing

Kate Litteken

Jan 1, 20232 min read

The Red Candle.....

It's been almost one year since I was here last. My journey to finding me has not stopped but it has had detours and pauses as other demands took hold and attentions shifted. In the past months I have found a voice. It's a quiet voice that seems to be reserved for particular people and situations but it is my voice. The loud silence still remains but the quiet silence is growing. Hope makes her daily attempts at reminding me that love is not lost just hidden. But the dou

Kate Litteken

Jan 1, 20232 min read

Hope.

The darkness of the nights bring with them a surge of thoughts that the daylight tends to mask and delay. But the dark does not hide them. They creep from the shadows and demand to be be heard. To have their moment out loud in the silence of rest. The voices of doubt, of fear, of anxiety, of questioning, of loneliness are unrelenting in their approach. They are an army of loud shadows. They come in the form of questions, of songs, of internal dialogues. All aimed at in

Kate Litteken

Jan 19, 20221 min read

The Loud Silence

The house is quiet. The walls don't speak to me. The stories that they hold are secrets they have promised to keep. What does speak in the silence is the doubt in my head. This is when the questioning and the replaying of the past storms from the shadows. This is when the loud silence emerges. My house is full and at the same time the people that fill it are absent. I live for the brief conversations I am granted with those that I love. But conversations with children

Kate Litteken

Jan 15, 20222 min read

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