Recovery

Three Things It's Time You Forgave Yourself For

1. The ways in which you fought through pain: the dark paths you shouldn't have gone down. The crazy things you did in the name of coping that brought about more damage than good. The things you did to keep yourself alive when you didn't know any better way. The way your survival instinct showed itself when you were too young or helpless to control it doesn't make you a bad person. It makes you a stronger, fuller person for still being around. For having found your way back to life.

2. The person you could never love properly: the person whose body never fit right with yours, whose thoughts weren't the ying to your yang, whose words never quite sounded right but whom you tried to love despite and because of it all. The person you tried to get it right with so hard that it felt like your heart was going to give up on beating, but who eventually had to let go. You cannot force love into existence. And letting it bloom somewhere else only makes us all freer in the end.

3. The chances you didn't take: the places you never traveled to. The experiences you didn't have. The person you did not chase after when they decided to walk away. We have to unclasp our palms and let go of every alternate reality where we're happier, stronger, brighter because of all the things we did differently. Those universes do not exist. But ours does. And it's okay here, if we open our eyes up and let it be.