Marwa

Marwa symbolically represents the “Mountain,” and it is named in honor of my younger sister, Erica Marwa Marie, who tragically passed away at 34.

Her life was marked by unimaginable hardships, yet even as she carried a heaviness within, she radiated a light that uplifted others.

I didn't know it then, but I now understand that my sister and I were reflections of each other's Shadow.

We adapted to our childhood in opposite ways — unconsciously creating personas that helped us survive. We mirrored back the disowned shadow parts of ourselves in one another and deeply triggered each other in that reflection.

I shaped myself into someone who was composed, controlled, people-pleasing, secretly rebellious, and overly responsible.

She became chaotic, carefree, outwardly rebellious, and unafraid to speak her mind.

I tried to hold it all together; she let it all spill out.

Her expression to the world was colored in the very qualities I worked so hard to contain, just as mine embodied the ones she could not hold.

Together, we danced in the duality that lives within us all — the inner conflict — the unseen war of opposites — between what we allow ourselves to express to the world in order to be accepted, and what we bury deep inside.

In losing her, I came face-to-face with the very parts of myself I spent a lifetime trying to escape.

And in the depths of my grief, I found the courage to slowly, intentionally, bring those parts into the light — a journey towards individuation.

A rebirth of her spirit, woven into my own shadow integration.

The freedom we seek — the full expression of our light — lies hidden within the layers of our story and in the parts of ourselves we unknowingly repress.

It is my deepest hope that through this work, I can honor my sister and the life that we endured — not only by carrying her light forward, but by helping others uncover their own.