True healing does not involve changing the event, avoiding the perpetrator (though this could still be a necessary, albeit unrelated, step), or understanding what happened in the past better.

It involves becoming conscious of the belief about oneself that was birthed when the event happened, observing where it is still active in the present moment, and dismantling that belief.

We all know that where we judge others, we judge ourselves more severely. But did you know that what we recognize, adore, admire, and look up to in others are also actually breadcrumbs for that very exact thing existing in us.

Sometimes I want to be arrived already, and of course the further down this path I get, the clearer I am that the only thing I could ever possibly know is who I am, and that that journey is a lifelong, perpetually unfolding, relationship.

It started so small. You pretended to be indifferent. You were merely keeping your options open, waiting to see which opportunities presented themselves.