I used to think healing would make life easier. Instead, it made me harder to hijack. The interruptions didn’t disappear—I simply learned to meet them with a little more presence, a little more humor, and a lot more grace.

I spent years believing unconditional love was something you gave everyone else. Then I discovered the person I’d forgotten to include was me. Healing didn’t teach me to become someone worthy of love—it taught me to love the woman who had been here all along.