09/09/2026
After you’ve been hurt, joy can feel surprisingly vulnerable. You can want something good and still brace yourself for the moment it disappears. You can meet someone wonderful and wait for them to disappoint you. You can finally get what you hoped for and immediately start imagining all the ways you could lose it.
Survival teaches us how to protect ourselves. Healing has to teach us something different: how to stop treating every good thing like a warning sign.
There comes a point when protecting yourself from pain can also protect you from fully experiencing your own life. The goal isn’t just to feel safe again. It’s to feel safe enough to be happy.
