It is going to be okay, really.

We did it. I thought we wouldn't make it, but we did. It was almost certain that things would never be okay again, and they are. It felt like everything important to me in the world shattered and I would never learn to put myself back together, and here I am.

Shall we celebrate? Do we wrap our arms around one another and dance? Do we make up a song and sing along merrily? Or do we pretend it never happened? We go on like we never ever fell down?

I made it. Even through the trials that ripped you away from me. Even though pieces of myself were lost along the way. I survived. Though the person I am now is a stranger to that girl back then. I am better now.

Loss, heartache, trials, mistakes, and injury have taught me much. Sometimes it seems as though there will never be enough light again. The wounds will never heal. Life cannot proceed in any kind of acceptable manner ever again. But those are things you feel in the moment. Life does go on. And those horrible times can be the ones that make us stronger, kinder, better. Or they can break us. And I think we get to choose.

But I made it this far. And I'm sure I'll have times when I cannot see a way out. I'll try to remember then what I know now:

It is going to be okay, really.