life is short and that all we have to offer, in the end, is love. - Cheryl Strayed

saw the power of the darkness. Saw that, in fact, I had strayed and that I was a stray and that from the wild places my straying had brought me, I knew things I couldn’t have known before.

Accept that this experience taught you something you didn't want to know. Accept that sorrow and strife are part of even a joyful life. Accept that it's going to take a long time for you to get that monster out of your chest. Accept that someday what pains you now will surely pain you less.

I always did what someone else wanted me to do. I've always been someone's daughter or mother or wife. I've never just been me.