I Went Quiet. Here's Where I Actually Went.

I owe you an honest explanation for my silence.

I owe you an honest explanation for my silence.

My mom died last year. I learned years ago, after losing my dad, that when someone dies in my life I cannot write. The words just stop working. It took me a long time to find them again after each of them. I thought I was getting there last fall, thought the grief of losing my mom was starting to settle enough that I could come back to this.

Then we lost someone else. This time a young niece, Arianna. She was traveling with her schoolmates to a STEM competition in Tennessee when their bus went over the center lane. Two kids did not make it. She was one of them.

That one went deep. We are still carrying it. She was an amazing girl, and the hardest thing has been watching my sister-in-law lose her only baby. There is no framework for that. There is nothing that makes it make sense. We flew out to go be with the family in Tennessee for a little over a week. It wasn’t enough, but I am so glad we were able to all be together.

Now, I will write anyway. Not because I am ready. Not because we have stopped hurting. But because I want to make the best of this life for the people still in it, including myself. Running my own business and helping people is the thing that makes me most fulfilled, and going quiet was not serving anyone, least of all me. Arianna’s too-short life has awakened a drive in me to do my best.

I am also turning paid subscriptions back on. Not because I need the money. I charge about the lowest monthly fee Substack allows. I am turning them on because it will keep me accountable. It will help me show up for you.

The research I was sitting with before I went quiet, on confidence, on how professional women are evaluated, on what presence actually signals to a room, did not stop being interesting just because I stopped writing about it.

Here is where Light Loves Color is going.

This publication is built on a foundation of decades of hands-on color analysis practice and over 16,000 collective client sessions developed by Sandy Dumont, founder of The Image Architect and one of the most rigorous color methodology researchers in the field. I carry that work forward, updated for the modern professional environment.

The short version: I translate color science and the psychology of professional presence into practical tools for women who want their appearance to work as hard as they do. Not fashion advice. Not rules about what is flattering. The actual science of how you are perceived before you open your mouth, and what you can do with that information deliberately and strategically.

That is the work. I have a lot of it to share.

New posts arrive every 10 days. Each one will be specific, grounded in research, and built around something you can actually use.

If that is not what you signed up for, no hard feelings. The unsubscribe link is below and I will not take it personally. But if it is, I am glad you are still here.

One thing before you go: hit reply and tell me the one professional situation where you most wish your presence was working harder for you. I am using those answers to decide what to write first.

Photo by Krzysztof Maksimiuk on Unsplash

Grief doesn’t care about our content calendars but sometimes it makes us realize that life is too short to not do what we love.

I sincerely hope you are well, friend!

Tatyana Wilson, Ed.S., SHRM-CP