#believed

Trinidad citizens believed killed in US airstrike off Venezuela coast identified | Trinidad and Tobago

It was real. Everything you experienced and every emotion you endured was real. Even if no one asked. Even if no one believed. Even if no one protected you. Even if you kept a brave face, and no one realized you were crumbling. It was real. All of it. And because it was real, because it altered your view of yourself, the world and the people around you, because it altered the way you think, live, and communicate, because it made you question your sanity, safety, and strength... you must give yourself permission to truly acknowledge, release, and heal from it.

The feeling that she had never really lived in this world caught her by surprise. It was a fact. She had never lived. Even as a child, as far back as she could remember, she had done nothing but endure. She had believed in her own inherent goodness, her humanity, and lived accordingly, never causing anyone harm. Her devotion to doing things the right way had been unflagging, all her successes had depended on it, and she would have gone on like that indefinitely. She didn’t understand why, but faced with those decaying buildings and straggling grasses, she was nothing but a child who had never lived.

2023 APRIL 16 Divine Mercy Sunday