Charina.Writes

Dark Under The Lamp

Sometimes, the things closest to us are the ones we struggle to truly see. There’s a Korean saying — 등잔 밑이 어둡다 — “it’s dark under the lamp.” It means the brightest light can shine outward, reaching far beyond itself… yet the space right beneath it remains in shadow. And isn’t that how life works…

Some Stories End For A Reason

Sometimes we don’t realize it right away. We hold on, we rewrite chapters in our mind, we hope maybe the next page will make sense of the pain. But life has a way of quietly showing us the truth long before we’re ready to say it out loud. And the truth is, not every story…

The Things We Lose Without Knowing

It’s strange how easy it is to lose pieces of ourselves without even realizing it. One scroll at a time. One harmless reel after another. We laugh, we double-tap, we share — until little by little, the things that once made us uncomfortable start to feel normal. It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s subtle — almost…

The Heart’s Pages

I came to the realization that writing is my way of showing my heart’s pages to people who have never learned how to read. There are moments in life when spoken words simply fall short — when even the most sincere intentions cannot bridge the distance between what you feel and what others can understand….

The Cycle We Choose to Break

Sometimes, pain doesn’t end where it begins. It travels. It changes hands, it changes faces—but it remains the same pain, recycled in new ways. What was once done to us can easily become what we do to others if we never pause to heal what’s been broken inside. Many of us grew up with words…

Life Worthy of God’s Kingdom

Our one and only simple goal is to live a life worthy of God’s Kingdom— and yet, somehow, we drift. We wake up meaning well, but somewhere between the noise and the need to keep up, our hearts forget. We start collecting things that don’t last. We hold on to offenses that harden us. We…

You Don’t Have To…

You Don’t Have to Carry It Forever. Just because someone projected their hurt onto you doesn’t mean you have to carry it the rest of your life. Sometimes pain passes through people like a storm that doesn’t know where to land. It finds the closest heart—often the kindest one—and pours itself there. And before you…

The Weight of What We Do

There are people in this world who can do harmful things and still move through life as if nothing happened — as if words didn’t wound, trust wasn’t broken, or hearts weren’t affected. It happens in families, between parents and children, among siblings, in marriages, friendships, and workplaces. Pain doesn’t always come from strangers; sometimes,…

Love Is Not Just a Word

“I love you” should be one of the safest places in the world. But too often, it becomes the most confusing. Some people say the words so easily, so casually, as if they are light. But love—real love—is anything but light. It carries weight. It should mean something. Love is not just affection. It is…

Mushi

Mushi: The Quiet Power of Being Seen In Japanese, there is a word that carries both sting and subtle wisdom: mushi (無視). It means “to ignore” or “to disregard,” and in its passive form, mushi-sareta, it captures the aching reality of being ignored completely. We’ve all felt it—the sudden absence of acknowledgment, the silence that…

Charina.Writes

Memoir of my Heart

The Art of Healing

What’s Your Story?

{Make Time}

Flying Through Fog