<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[WHISPERS OF MY SOUL]]></title><description><![CDATA[Whispers Of My Soul]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Wed, 04 Nov 2026 12:15:29 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[THE PARENTING WE DON’T TALK ABOUT.]]></title><description><![CDATA[The other day, I found myself sitting quietly, wondering what it truly means to co-parent in our Kenyan society, or perhaps more broadly, within an African setting. The term itself sounds simple, almost ideal: two people raising children together despite no longer being together. In theory, it speaks of maturity, compromise, and putting the child or children first. But does it really work that way here? Out of curiosity, I began reading and researching how co-parenting works in other parts of...]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/post/the-parenting-we-don-t-talk-about</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a156fe9d681fe01d16a9fa6</guid><pubDate>Tue, 26 May 2026 10:52:09 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b2ddcc_01cc44cb5059478094cb1f4bc332ff00~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Gabriela Esese</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[BEHIND THE SMILES.]]></title><description><![CDATA[There is something about growing older that makes you realize how much people carry in silence. This month is recognized globally as Mental Health Awareness Month, a time dedicated to breaking the stigma surrounding mental illness, promoting emotional wellness, and creating awareness about the importance of support systems and accessible care. The movement began in 1949 in the United States through Mental Health America (MHA), then known as the National Association for Mental Health....]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/post/behind-the-smiles</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a0d9a39ce2b5b4a4d6cb568</guid><pubDate>Wed, 20 May 2026 12:04:32 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b2ddcc_9ed9dc39be574a56bcc72776f7e3bf76~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Gabriela Esese</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[A SEASON OF REFINING AND GRACE.]]></title><description><![CDATA[April, what a month it has been. A month marked by trials, tears, and moments that stretched me in ways I did not expect. There were highs that gave me hope and lows that nearly broke me. And yet, through it all, one thing has remained constant: God has been there. He has been my provider when I did not know where provision would come from. My shelter when everything around me felt uncertain. My quiet strength in moments when I felt like I had none left. If anyone were to ask whether I have a...]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/post/a-season-of-refining-and-grace</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69f1da33829c52805ba87d45</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 12:24:27 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b2ddcc_5d0b9b6c2590407395f089ed93acc7af~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Gabriela Esese</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[March 8TH: A BIRTHDAY WRAPPED IN THE POWER OF WOMEN.]]></title><description><![CDATA[As the calendar edges closer to the 8th of March, I find myself sitting quietly with my thoughts, turning inward, reflecting on the journey that has carried me here. Birthdays often bring reflection, but mine arrives wrapped in something larger than myself. It arrives with the voices of women across the world. I was born in the only month where my birthday shares space with a day that belongs to every woman; International Women’s Day. This year, the theme reads softly yet powerfully: Give to...]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/post/march-8th-a-birthday-wrapped-in-the-power-of-women</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69aaebcdd66894c6d6f3cf01</guid><pubDate>Fri, 06 Mar 2026 16:49:29 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b2ddcc_3d287c6d43864dd982e6cf467ef85925~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Gabriela Esese</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[LETTING THE WIND CARRY IT AWAY.]]></title><description><![CDATA[Sometimes the hardest place to visit is not a distant land, but the quiet room where my everything waits for me, unchanged, unsoftened by time. Facing it requires a courage I often pretend I have mastered, yet when truth arrives, bare, unguarded, it cuts deeper than any blade meant to heal. Three days ago, truth found me. Not loud, not cruel, just precise. It entered me like surgery without anesthesia, sharp, intentional, unavoidable. I sat in the matatu as the world moved on around me,...]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/post/letting-the-wind-carry-it-away</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69850867840b9b8e1d2cef8c</guid><pubDate>Thu, 05 Feb 2026 21:51:52 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b2ddcc_327bdf5278014d82af0469a2f56086b3~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Gabriela Esese</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[SPICES, SILENCE, AND SELF-LOVE.]]></title><description><![CDATA[This week, I chose myself. I took a solo journey to another county, Mombasa, walking into a place where no one knew my name, where I carried only my heart, my questions, and the quiet courage I have been growing. I went alone. Not because I had no one, but because I needed space. Some doors, once closed, must remain closed. Some nests, once disturbed, are no longer safe. And choosing not to let certain people back in was an act of self-respect, not bitterness. I am proud of myself. That deep,...]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/post/spices-silence-and-self-love</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6969f0a93e23fce29371e0a5</guid><pubDate>Fri, 16 Jan 2026 08:21:35 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b2ddcc_0335781d5d16480bbb175fd360c15879~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Gabriela Esese</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[A LETTER WRITTEN AT THE EDGE OF A NEW YEAR.]]></title><description><![CDATA[As the year slowly folds into its ending, its lessons rise like quiet echoes. Not loudly.Not all at once. But gently, honestly asking to be acknowledged. This year began with uncertainty, with a version of the self that felt fragile, unfinished, almost unrecognizable. Strength had to be learned where weakness lived. Bravery had to be practiced in spaces once ruled by fear. Happiness had to be invitedeven while sadness refused to leave. And somewhere between survival and hope, the self that...]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/post/a-letter-written-at-the-edge-of-a-new-year</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69556913810abc75244a6b01</guid><pubDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2025 19:20:07 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b2ddcc_cf61c1812a414e9fbbd41f3ec867c09f~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Gabriela Esese</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[NOTES FROM A TIRED HEART.]]></title><description><![CDATA[It may not be the right place to speak, yet silence has grown heavier than words. There are thoughts that press against the chest, asking to be written if they cannot be spoken. A mother exists in the space between giving and lacking, pouring from a cup that is rarely full . Every day is an attempt to offer love, guidance, and stability, even when resources fall short, and answers feel incomplete. Her son carries emotions she cannot fully reach. A quiet storm of expectations and unmet desires...]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/post/notes-from-a-tired-heart</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6942d7f163177ee67e294091</guid><pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2025 17:02:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b2ddcc_ba4b0069ab014c54a490e257e7496a4d~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Gabriela Esese</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[BECOMING AGAIN.]]></title><description><![CDATA[You know… sometimes I feel like running away from “beautiful.”Not because it has hurt me, though it has, in ways I still cannot name, but because beauty feels too fragile in my hands, too soft for a world that has never learned to handle softness with care. Yet somehow, I linger…thinking perhaps beautiful deserves another chance, even when my heart whispers that it does not, even when my spirit trembles at the memory of all the times I dared to trust too soon, too deeply, too honestly. The...]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/post/becoming-again</link><guid isPermaLink="false">692a1ea2a20c8b33b2652a41</guid><pubDate>Fri, 28 Nov 2025 22:58:40 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b2ddcc_33246ebb94b8486e8f4c8f52a13ebf42~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Gabriela Esese</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[THE SILENCE OF MOTHERHOOD]]></title><description><![CDATA[Sometimes words exist, enough to spill the heaviness out…but they scatter before reaching my lips. I never signed up for this version  of me, yet somehow, here I am found in a place I never searched for. If time had handles, I would turn it back to the day I held him in my arms, 3.1 kilos of quiet beauty. He never cried. None of them did…2.9 kg, 3.6 kg, all silent beginnings to a journey that has been anything but. Motherhood: no direction, no handbook, just a path carved by trembling feet....]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/post/the-silence-of-motherhood</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69220c3f9fd6d3ea52681935</guid><pubDate>Sat, 22 Nov 2025 19:34:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b2ddcc_82e7f32afcbf49cbb2f0fc649b2938f1~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Gabriela Esese</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[ECHOES BENEATH MY SKIN]]></title><description><![CDATA[Have you ever battled your childhood scars while carrying the weight of adulthood? They never fade easily; they linger, whispering through laughter, echoing in silence. If one never faces them early, they return, as grief disguised in love, as fear wrapped in tenderness, as walls built inside the heart. And those who have conquered them, are they victors or victorious? Are they winners in the quiet wars within? Perhaps they are simply survivors, learning to breathe again. And what of those...]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/post/echoes-beneath-my-skin</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691460d03b27b314835e4750</guid><pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:48:36 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b2ddcc_77467d67fb014c4e982208ba36ecdeba~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Gabriela Esese</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[MERCY, MOULDED, AND MADE NEW]]></title><description><![CDATA[Great is Your mercy for me, Your loving kindness toward me, Your tender mercies I see, day after day, morning after morning. Forever faithful, always providing, when I thought I’d fallen too far, when I thought I’d never rise again. This year began with trembling hands, a heart learning to beat alone, a mother, not of one, but of three beautiful souls. The path was not paved with ease; it was carved in tears, in whispered prayers behind closed doors, in the soft strength of “I’ll be okay.”...]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/post/mercy-moulded-and-made-new</link><guid isPermaLink="false">690c603a988cdeb684faa6af</guid><pubDate>Thu, 06 Nov 2025 09:42:47 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b2ddcc_1ecdc4ef57da40daa440b678f557203b~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Gabriela Esese</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[THE WHAT IFS BETWEEN US.]]></title><description><![CDATA[I like the way our conversations unfold, deep, mysterious, like we’re both reaching for something unseen. He listens, and I find myself speaking truths I didn’t plan to share. Sometimes, I drift into the what-ifs. There are so many now, I’ve lost count, each one a whisper of possibility, a door I’m too cautious to open. I confessed today that I’m territorial, that jealousy found me when I least expected it. It slipped out clumsily, but strangely, it set me free. Funny how honesty can make you...]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/post/the-what-ifs-between-us</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69073146bb9a5281a8acfb97</guid><pubDate>Sun, 02 Nov 2025 10:48:37 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b2ddcc_dd16e3f840644b0cae6ea855a3157c6c~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Gabriela Esese</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[CHEERS TO OUR WARRIORS.]]></title><description><![CDATA[This year, we lost heroes and heroines, not all wore uniforms, but each bore invisible scars. To those who fought and could not win the battle, you are not losers; You are victors and victorious in ways the world may never see. Even without a battlefield, you faced storms within your hearts, and that courage will always echo. Tsuma…I still remember calling you Daddy , your laughter carrying warmth through the cold corridors of the NHIF Westlands office. You said I shared your daughter’s name;...]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/post/cheers-to-our-warriors</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69033461bd33a5bbc24ffcec</guid><pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2025 10:24:54 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b2ddcc_95b09404baef4ba49139c52bf5670704~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Gabriela Esese</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[THE QUIET BETWEEN MY HEARTBEATS.]]></title><description><![CDATA[Lately, I feel like a stranger in my own skin. The days pass, but something inside me lingers, unanswered, unsettled. I keep asking myself questions that echo in the quiet: Am I a good mother? A kind colleague? A loyal friend, a loving daughter, a present sister? Sometimes, I just don’t know. There are nights when the silence feels heavier than my body. I lie in bed, tears slipping down the sides of my face, cooling on the pillow. The bed feels too big, too cold. The kind of loneliness I...]]></description><link>https://gabrielaesese.wixsite.com/whispers-of-my-soul/post/the-quiet-between-my-heartbeats</link><guid isPermaLink="false">690200e43eb9e1a18664fa5a</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 12:00:30 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b2ddcc_b6461590143e447dab283eeeb13167ec~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Gabriela Esese</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>