I, Sanctuary

I am the place

you come to

when the world has taken too much.

Save your breath for the tea,

for I’ve seen your spirit’s silhouette

clearing a path through the doorway

long before you crossed the threshold

I have held women

who were called strong

until their softness started to feel like failure

I have provided the room for them

to unlearn the performance of being unbreakable

And yes-

some of them learned that breaking

was not first taught by the world,

but by the hands that looked like theirs

But hear me…

I am not God.

I did not create this safety.

I am what happens

when He is remembered

in the way we choose

to hold each other

Here-

you do not have to earn rest.

You do not have to translate your pain

into something palatable.

Let it come out how it lived in you.

I do not flinch

at what the world made you carry.

I was shaped for this.

Out of glances

that spoke before mouths could.

Out of laughter

that stitched closed what almost split open.

Out of silence

that never felt empty.

I am older than the harm done to you…

not because I was here first,

but because what built me

was never fragile

Wider than the rooms

that tried to shrink you

Softer than the names

they gave your survival.

Lay it down.

Not because it is light,

but because you are allowed

to be.

I have caught tears

mid-fall

and called them holy...

not by my power,

but by the One

who counts them.

I have turned kitchens into confessionals,

group chats into lifelines,

and late-night conversations into deliverance.

This is my power.

I don’t just hold you…

I remember you

when you forget yourself.

I do not just witness…

I make room

for what God is restoring in you.

I do not ask you

to be strong here.

I ask you

to be real.

And in a world,

that has made a habit

of misnaming you…

 I speak what He says

until you can hear it

in your own voice again.

Come in.

You are safe here.

Not because of me,

but because of what

Has been placed in us.

---

About Shawana Peters

Shawana Peters is a faith-rooted writer and creative visionary whose work explores womanhood as a sacred design. She writes from the belief that the body is a temple, the heart is a garden, and cultivation is an act of obedience as much as artistry. Her language is devotional with spectacle-grounded in Scripture, shaped by discipline, and committed to the quiet architecture of becoming.

She is the founder of The SoftHer Garden, a space devoted to softness as spiritual strength and tending the inner life with intention. She is also the creator of Petal Pressed Co., a customized apparel brand that transforms affirming, faith-centered language into wearable design.

Across her work...written or worn, she returns to one conviction: a woman is not common ground. She is sacred ground, stewarded with care.