My name is Tatiana Hart, and I’m not very good at small talk.

I never have been. Maybe that’s because it always feels too light — too much like my life is so calm that the biggest thing on my mind is actually the weather. Not as a metaphor. Literally: will it be nice enough to take my dog for a walk? What movie do I want to watch tonight? What shade of lipstick would pair well with my next outfit?

I can only recall having very brief periods in my life that were anything close to that.

I’d rather sit with you in the uncomfortable things — the grief that doesn’t have a name yet, the love that came with conditions attached, the version of yourself you’re still trying to find underneath everything that happened to you.

That’s what this space is for.

I’m a writer, a mother, and someone who spent a very long time learning how to not build a safer life. But I’ve been using those failures — every one of them — to shape something better. A healthier, more intentional life for myself and my small child. I write about trauma and healing, about the quiet work of becoming someone who protects herself and her child first, instead of endlessly protecting someone else. Someone who proved, in the end, not to be worthy of that level of protection, dedication, and loyalty.

I write about the moments that don’t make it into the highlight reel but still manage to change you completely anyway.

No Small Talk isn’t a recovery blog. It’s not a self-help blog. It’s an honest one — written by someone still in the middle of it, for anyone else who is too.

If you have found your way here, I’m glad. I hope my openness helps you mend at least a piece of yourself — if life has left you deeply scarred.

— Tatiana