Planting Power in Life’s Hardest Season

By Katie Wood

Author of A Simple Seed (Penguin Random House, October 14, 2025)

One of the defining moments of my life, and the moment that allowed me to step fully into my work as both an author and entrepreneur, came during a dark season.

My third daughter was born with craniosynostosis, a rare condition in which a baby’s skull fuses too early, restricting brain growth. At just two years old, she faced a seven-hour, life-saving surgery, a full blood transfusion, and 150 stitches at Boston Children’s Hospital.

From diagnosis to surgery day, my mind spiraled. Fear. Worry. Endless what-ifs. I felt completely out of control, overwhelmed by a situation in which I felt utterly powerless. I stood at a crossroads. I could give in to relentless anxiety, or I could pause, take a breath, and find something, anything, to bring me peace.

I took my power back the moment I chose intention over fear by learning how to center my mind first thing in the morning.

Instead of waking each day consumed by panic, I committed to a simple morning routine. I grounded myself. I practiced gratitude. I set my intention for the day. It was neither elaborate nor time-consuming, but it became my anchor when nothing else felt stable. I didn’t choose this diagnosis for my daughter, but I chose how I would show up for her. I chose gratitude for the extraordinary medical care available to her. I chose to believe that I would be her rock through this journey.

This surgery, as terrifying as it was, would shape both of us into something stronger.

My true aha moment came when I saw my little girl after surgery. I remember holding her at two a.m., listening to the EKG go up and then down, then up and then down. I looked at her scar, counting all 150 stitches, also going up and down, mirroring the same rhythm. Suddenly it hit me. Life is meant to move this way.

Ups and downs. Highs and lows.

The highs are easy to celebrate. The lows teach us how to rise.

That moment changed how I saw my own power.

I realized that while I could not control the circumstances, I could control the meaning I assigned to them. The hardest season of my life became my most inspiring the moment I reclaimed the power to reframe my experience. From that hospital room, and from my background as a former teacher, I created A Simple Seed, a gratitude journal designed to help children build the same emotional resilience I was learning in real time.

Today, beyond being a mother of four, an author, and an entrepreneur, I am also a speaker who addresses the ways women are conditioned to play small and how we can choose differently. My story serves as the foundation for conversations about resilience, perspective, and staying unstoppable in the face of setbacks.

I often share another defining experience, running the 2018 Boston Marathon in a monsoon, the worst weather in marathon history. I ran in honor of the hospital that saved my daughter’s life, and each mile offered its own lesson. I learned to let go of expectations, embrace discomfort, manage energy, conquer personal Heartbreak Hills, surround myself with the right people, and find joy even when conditions were far from ideal.

Both experiences taught me the same truth. Strength is not about avoiding hardship. It is about how you move through it.

Women stay unstoppable during setbacks by remembering this.

Perspective is power. When you cannot change your situation, you can change how you see it.

Embrace the journey. Life is meant to rise and fall. Gratitude, intention, and presence carry us through the hardest moments.

Joy lives in the process. Growth does not end at the finish line. Joy is found along the way, every step, every mile, every breath.

Our power is not something we discover when life is easy. It is something we remember when life asks more of us than we ever thought we could give.

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