Pride in Her Eyes

She didn’t talk about it a lot, but she was proud of herself.

She’d be given more than her fair share of challenges throughout her life, and she hadn’t just dealt with them and moved on, she’d learned from them and used what she’d learned to help others.

She had to remind herself of that from time to time.

Because time had a way of softening things, of smoothing out the rough edges, of making her not only forgive, but forget.

That had been the point all along:

To feel normal.
To feel whole.
To feel as if nothing bad had ever happened at all.

That’s where she was now.

And as grateful for that as she was, she also never wanted to lose sight of how far she’d come.

The journey mattered.

It hadn’t just shaped her, she had shaped it.

She’d been the difference maker for herself and others.

Through her strength and her determination and her undying belief that people had the capacity to improve their lives and themselves, she’d practically willed a better life into existence.

She needed to remember that.

Because the journey wasn’t over yet.

And those same attributes that had empowered her to overcome those old challenges were still inside of her just waiting to be unleashed.

She was ready to invoke those powers once again and she understood, at long last, that she didn’t have to wait for or invent a crises to do it.

She was free…

Free to do something just for fun, just because, just for her.
Free to create something new or exciting or beautiful.
Free to sit down in the middle of the life she’d made possible for herself, and choose what she wanted to do next.