A Message From the Other Side: My Brother, the Butterfly, and the Stories I Still Had to Tell

<!-- ============================================================
THE LOVE LADY — Kajabi Blog Post
Paste this whole block into Kajabi's blog editor via the
"</>" source-code / HTML view (or a Custom Code block).
Everything is self-contained and scoped to .lovelady-post,
so it won't collide with your theme's styles.

ONE THING TO SWAP BEFORE PUBLISHING:
The video embed below (look for "PASTE VIDEO EMBED HERE").
============================================================ -->

.lovelady-post{
--ink:#3c2338;
--ink-soft:#5a4453;
--aubergine:#40233b;
--rose:#b76e79;
--rose-deep:#9c5262;
--gold:#c9a45c;
--blush:#fbf6f4;
--blush-2:#f5e9e6;
--line:#e7d6d2;
--display:'Cormorant Garamond', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;
--body:-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
max-width:720px;
margin:0 auto;
padding:8px 4px 40px;
color:var(--ink);
font-family:var(--body);
font-size:18px;
line-height:1.75;
-webkit-font-smoothing:antialiased;
}

.lovelady-post *{box-sizing:border-box;}

/* ---------- Hero ---------- */
.lovelady-post .ll-hero{
position:relative;
text-align:center;
padding:34px 18px 26px;
margin-bottom:8px;
overflow:hidden;
}
.lovelady-post .ll-hero::before{
content:"";
position:absolute;
top:-40%;left:50%;
width:520px;height:520px;
transform:translateX(-50%);
background:radial-gradient(circle at center,
rgba(201,164,92,0.28) 0%,
rgba(183,110,121,0.14) 34%,
rgba(255,255,255,0) 68%);
pointer-events:none;
z-index:0;
}
.lovelady-post .ll-eyebrow{
position:relative;z-index:1;
font-family:var(--body);
font-size:12px;
letter-spacing:.32em;
text-transform:uppercase;
color:var(--rose-deep);
font-weight:600;
margin:0 0 14px;
}
.lovelady-post h1.ll-title{
position:relative;z-index:1;
font-family:var(--display);
font-weight:500;
font-size:42px;
line-height:1.14;
letter-spacing:.005em;
color:var(--aubergine);
margin:0 0 16px;
}
.lovelady-post .ll-themes{
position:relative;z-index:1;
font-family:var(--body);
font-size:12.5px;
letter-spacing:.14em;
text-transform:uppercase;
color:var(--rose-deep);
font-weight:600;
}
.lovelady-post .ll-themes span{color:var(--gold);padding:0 6px;}

/* ---------- Video ---------- */
.lovelady-post .ll-video{
position:relative;
width:100%;
aspect-ratio:16/9;
margin:18px 0 8px;
border-radius:14px;
overflow:hidden;
box-shadow:0 12px 34px -14px rgba(64,35,59,0.5);
background:var(--blush-2);
}
.lovelady-post .ll-video iframe{
position:absolute;inset:0;
width:100%;height:100%;border:0;
}
.lovelady-post .ll-caption{
text-align:center;
font-size:14px;
color:var(--ink-soft);
font-style:italic;
margin:10px 0 26px;
}

/* ---------- Body ---------- */
.lovelady-post .ll-lede{
font-family:var(--display);
font-size:24px;
line-height:1.5;
color:var(--aubergine);
font-weight:500;
margin:6px 0 22px;
}
.lovelady-post p{margin:0 0 20px;}
.lovelady-post em{font-style:italic;}
.lovelady-post strong{color:var(--rose-deep);font-weight:600;}

/* ---------- Divider ---------- */
.lovelady-post .ll-divider{
text-align:center;
margin:34px 0;
color:var(--gold);
font-size:20px;
letter-spacing:.4em;
}

/* ---------- Numbered sections (FIXED) ----------
The step label is now a block element on its own line
ABOVE the heading, so it can't smush into the heading
text when Kajabi flattens layout on paste. */
.lovelady-post h2.ll-h2{
font-family:var(--display);
font-weight:600;
font-size:29px;
line-height:1.22;
color:var(--aubergine);
margin:34px 0 14px;
}
.lovelady-post .ll-step{
display:block;
font-family:var(--display);
font-style:italic;
font-weight:500;
font-size:15px;
letter-spacing:.22em;
text-transform:uppercase;
color:var(--rose);
margin:0 0 6px;
}

/* ---------- Callout ---------- */
.lovelady-post .ll-callout{
background:linear-gradient(180deg,var(--blush),var(--blush-2));
border-left:3px solid var(--gold);
border-radius:8px;
padding:20px 24px;
margin:26px 0;
}
.lovelady-post .ll-callout p{
margin:0;
font-family:var(--display);
font-style:italic;
font-size:22px;
line-height:1.45;
color:var(--aubergine);
}

/* ---------- Community close ---------- */
.lovelady-post .ll-community{
margin:40px 0 8px;
padding:28px 26px;
border:1px solid var(--line);
border-radius:14px;
background:
radial-gradient(120% 90% at 100% 0%, rgba(201,164,92,0.10), rgba(255,255,255,0) 60%),
var(--blush);
text-align:center;
}
.lovelady-post .ll-community h2{
font-family:var(--display);
font-weight:600;
font-size:27px;
color:var(--aubergine);
margin:0 0 10px;
}
.lovelady-post .ll-community p{
margin:0;
color:var(--ink-soft);
font-size:17px;
}

/* ---------- Sign-off ---------- */
.lovelady-post .ll-signoff{
text-align:center;
font-family:var(--display);
font-style:italic;
font-size:23px;
color:var(--rose-deep);
margin:30px 0 0;
}

/* ---------- Responsive ---------- */
@media (max-width:600px){
.lovelady-post{font-size:17px;padding:4px 2px 28px;}
.lovelady-post h1.ll-title{font-size:33px;}
.lovelady-post .ll-lede{font-size:21px;}
.lovelady-post h2.ll-h2{font-size:25px;}
.lovelady-post .ll-callout p{font-size:20px;}
}
</style>

<header class="ll-hero">
<p class="ll-eyebrow">The Love Lady · A Reading</p>
<h1 class="ll-title">A Message From the Other Side: My Brother, the Butterfly, and the Stories I Still Had to Tell</h1>
<p class="ll-themes">Completion <span>·</span> Messages From Spirit <span>·</span> Legacy <span>·</span> Fearless</p>
</header>

<div class="ll-video">
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0fAT5x6CSwo?si=7BLqmC9CwhTxDdpE" title="The Love Lady" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
<p class="ll-caption">Watch the full reading above — the written version below is the short of it.</p>

<p class="ll-lede">A woman named River came to me at seventy, certain that her life's work was complete. What her guides — and her brother, from the other side — wanted her to know was that one beautiful thing still remained.</p>

<p>River has spent her life close to the deep human things: families, children, communication, change, and the long, patient work of transformation. Before that she was a chainsaw artist, one of very few women doing that work in the Pacific Northwest, until two accidents ended it and took much of her access to the rivers and wild places that had always restored her. She has carried real pain, and over decades she has quietly turned it into gifts for other people. When she came to me, she came calm and clear, with a tender question underneath everything: is there anything left that still asks me to stay?</p>

<h2 class="ll-h2"><span class="ll-step">One</span>You've reached the finish line</h2>

<p>Her guides arrived at once, with an image that had been following her for years: a fairy girl, running and skipping through wildflowers, connected to the earth and the water and everything alive in it. Their message was gentle and certain. The work is complete. She had crossed the finish line. She had taken extraordinary pain and metabolized it into gifts she had been giving, steadily, for a very long time. Whatever else was true, her life had mattered, and it had landed.</p>

<h2 class="ll-h2"><span class="ll-step">Two</span>A message from the other side</h2>

<p>Then her brother Barry came through, warm and playful, sounding like the very essence of who he had been before life narrowed around him. A polio survivor, his years had held a great deal of frustration and constriction, a gap between who he wanted to be and what his body would allow. He had crossed over gladly, and he understood completely why she felt the pull to follow. But he came with something specific to say: she had broken free in a way no one else in their family ever managed. She had done the work, set down the weight, and emerged. And then he showed me a <strong>butterfly</strong>.</p>

<div class="ll-callout">
<p>He was waiting for her, he said — but he wanted her to know that what remained in her life was not nothing. It was the stories.</p>
</div>

<h2 class="ll-h2"><span class="ll-step">Three</span>The stories you still came to tell</h2>

<p>Her guides and Barry converged on the same message: she had not yet told her stories. Not a tidy, linear biography — that was never the point — but the real ones. The stories with Barry. The ones from a lifetime of witnessing people transform from the inside. The ones she had carried for decades and quietly softened around what she imagined other people could handle. Barry had always urged her to tell the pure, unadulterated truth, and she had held back, knowing how women's stories can land. But her guides were insistent: the stories need to come through her and into the world. That was the piece that wasn't finished yet.</p>

<p>And when she heard it, something shifted. She admitted she had already been thinking about it, that she even had names for some of them. Then she said the thing that felt like a beginning: <em>"I'll start writing."</em> Her guides closed with a single card from the fairy deck — <strong>move forward fearlessly</strong> — and she laughed, because she knew exactly how they were. And then she went to swim.</p>

<div class="ll-community">
<h2>Come tell your stories with us</h2>
<p>The Love Lady community is a warm place to honor the people we've loved, to celebrate the freedom we've fought for, and to finally tell the true stories we've been carrying. If there's one you've been waiting to write, come share it — we'd love to hear it.</p>
</div>

<p class="ll-signoff">Wishing you brave stories, still water, and a wave of love for you today.</p>

</article>

A Message From the Other Side: My Brother, the Butterfly, and the Stories I Still Had to Tell

Learn More About My Services

Join the Community