a blessing for if you’ve had a painful childhood

Blessed are you who come with your sorrow, allowing your pain to convey all its truth.

Here is where grief is understood at its core, where the dark shadow of betrayal is seen from the inside.

Here, my dear, is where the work of healing begins.

Blessed are you who mourn as you meet yourself once again, as a little child who needed protection but did not receive it, who deserved respect but was not afforded it.

The things that should have happened but didn’t and the thing that happened but shouldn’t.

The broken family systems and normalized cruelties that allowed your pain to continue far beyond what it should have.

For you have come back now to the God who is alive, to your past, your present, and to your future, who has already moved heaven and earth to restore your dignity and return you to yourself.

And P.S. Take a minute to remind your past self that you are loved now. Tomorrow and forever. And rest. You are safe. You are loved. You are held.