resilience

The Girl Left Behind – Who My Mother Was Before I Lost Her

My mother, Frances Marion Bell, was born on January 25, 1925, in Oakland, California. It was a cold, rainy January day. Her parents, George E. Bell and Helen Bell, welcomed their second daughter into the world with love. According to my grandfather, her birth was quick.

They named her Frances Marion.

My grandfather had been born in England, and my grandmother, Helen, in Massachusetts. Whether they chose the name because of its meaning or simply because they loved it, I’ll never know. But it suited her perfectly.

The name Frances is often associated with freedom, independence, and a strong sense of self. My mother embodied those qualities. She was a free spirit, quietly confident and deeply compassionate.

Since her […]

By Doré Frances|2026-08-06T12:32:47-06:00August 6th, 2026|Collections, The Girl Left Behind Collections, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

Beneath My Silence – If Love Finds Me Again

If love ever finds me again, I hope it arrives gently. I hope it’s someone who hears the words I never quite know how to say, and understands the silence between them.

Someone who delights in the little things ~

not because they are grand, but because they matter to me.

Someone who chooses me, even on ordinary days, and reminds me through small, quiet gestures that I am never an afterthought. I hope for a heart that feels like home ~

steady, kind, and unwavering.

A presence that brings peace rather than uncertainty. A hand that reaches for mine when life becomes difficult, without waiting to be asked. Someone who protects not by control, but […]

By Doré Frances|2026-08-06T11:01:56-06:00August 6th, 2026|Beneath My Silence - Poems, Collections, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

Beneath My Silence – Alone, Yet Never Lonely

Being alone is simply a circumstance. It is neither good nor bad. It is a quiet place where we can hear our own thoughts, discover our own strength, and become comfortable in our own company.

Loneliness is something different. It is not measured by the number of people around us, but by the ache within our hearts.

It can visit even in a crowded room and leave us feeling unseen.

I may walk through life alone, but I am not lonely, for I have learned to befriend myself. I have found peace in quiet moments and comfort in simply being. Still, there are days when loneliness quietly arrives. It reminds me that I long […]

By Doré Frances|2026-07-30T12:45:22-06:00July 30th, 2026|Beneath My Silence - Poems, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

Beneath My Silence – The People We Can Never Return To

There is a quiet kind of grief few people speak about. It arrives the moment you sit across from someone you once loved dearly and realize the person you remember no longer lives there.

Their face is familiar. Their voice is the same. But something essential has quietly changed. You search for the laughter you once knew, the ease you once shared, the feeling of coming home in their presence. Instead, you meet a stranger wearing a familiar name. Time has a way of changing us all. We shed old dreams, old fears, old versions of ourselves.

Sometimes we grow together.

Sometimes we grow apart. And perhaps that is one of life’s gentlest heartbreaks ~

understanding that you will […]

By Doré Frances|2026-07-26T12:09:35-06:00July 26th, 2026|Beneath My Silence - Poems, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

Beneath My Silence – The Heart That Chose Kindness

It is one of life’s quieter sorrows ~

discovering that being kind does not guarantee kindness in return. You can offer your best, show up with an open heart, love without keeping score, and still be met with silence, distance, or disappointment. That does not mean your kindness was misplaced. It simply means not every heart has learned to love in the same way.

Do not let another person’s choices convince you to become someone you were never meant to be.

Let their actions belong to them. Let your compassion belong to you. The world needs more hearts that choose goodness without demanding reward, more souls that remain gentle even after being wounded.

So keep choosing kindness ~

not […]

By Doré Frances|2026-07-26T12:09:26-06:00July 16th, 2026|Beneath My Silence - Poems, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

Beneath My Silence – The Grace to Become

Over the years, I’ve learned not to keep people imprisoned by who they once were. We all have versions of ourselves that no longer belong to us ~

choices we regret, lessons we had yet to learn, and seasons when our own wounds shaped the way we moved through the world.

It’s easy to remember someone by their hardest chapter. Much harder to notice the quiet work they’ve done since. But people are not meant to remain the same. Life has a way of humbling us, refining us, and inviting us to become more compassionate than we once were. I’ve watched hearts soften. I’ve seen restless souls find peace. I’ve witnessed people who once […]

By Doré Frances|2026-07-26T12:09:20-06:00July 9th, 2026|Beneath My Silence - Poems, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

Beneath My Silence – Between Two Worlds

Some days, it feels as though I exist between two worlds.

There is the person everyone sees ~

calm, capable, smiling at the right moments, moving through each day as though nothing has changed.

I answer questions, keep my commitments, and wear composure so naturally that few would ever think to look beyond it. Then there is the quieter life I carry within. A place where sorrow settles gently into my bones, where thoughts remain unspoken, and emotions are too deep for ordinary conversation. There are wounds no one can see, questions I cannot answer, and an ache that follows me even into moments that should feel light.

Living […]

By Doré Frances|2026-07-26T12:09:12-06:00July 3rd, 2026|Beneath My Silence - Poems, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

Beneath My Silence: A Poem About Quiet Growth, Healing, and Self-Worth

You’re allowed to grow in ways others may not notice or fully understand.

Not all growth is visible or celebrated.

Sometimes it lives in quiet decisions, in the healing no one sees, in the gentle way you begin to speak to yourself. Maybe you’re learning to rest without guilt, to set boundaries without explaining, or to trust your worth without needing it reflected back to you.

That is growth ~

steady, real, and deeply meaningful.

You’re also allowed to grow in ways that feel true to you, not just what the world expects. Growth doesn’t always look like achievement or forward motion. Sometimes it looks like slowing down, softening, or returning to what […]

By Doré Frances|2026-07-26T12:08:59-06:00March 20th, 2026|Beneath My Silence - Poems, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments