“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time,” said Maya Angelou. So Jonathan decided to start believing them. He let go of his unrealistic expectations for how he wished they would behave. He accepted reality as it was and would be. Only then could he find true acceptance: the necessary first step toward a new trajectory for his life. “For after all,” as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “the best thing one can do when it is raining, is to let it rain.” When we let go of our need to punish those who’ve hurt us, it’s not the culprit who is freed. We are freed. When we
...more
