01/31/2026
Both stood at a crossroads.
Both had choices.
They could have chosen anger.
Bitterness.
Resentment.
Victimhood.
They could have decided, “If I was hurt, then I get to hurt others.”
But they didn’t.
They chose healing, not because it was easy, but because they decided the pain stopped with them.
No more downstream damage.
No more unconscious hand-offs.
So they got curious.
They went back into their childhood memories, not to relive them, but to understand them.
They started pulling threads.
Our girlfriend remembers something clearly now.
Her father would hit her.
And afterward, he would apologize and say,
“You know daddy loves you, right?”
And she learned something else.
She must have made him mad.
It must have been her fault.
If she had been better, he wouldn’t have hurt her.
Very early, she learned that love could hurt.
That apology followed harm.
And that her job was to prevent pain by abandoning herself.
In that moment, a pattern formed.
A frequency locked in.
A loop began.
That was her origin story, not because her father was “evil,”
but because a nervous system learned how to survive.
And our guy friend, his story is quieter, but just as powerful.
His mother fed him, clothed him, drove him to soccer practice.
She wasn’t cruel.
She wasn’t absent.
But she never chose him.
She chose his siblings for extra stories at night.
Extra time.
Extra softness.
He felt it.
He always felt it.
And because it hurt too much to face, he buried it.
What he carried into the world was the frequency of the wounded rabbit,
the gentle boy who is never chosen.
And the world responded accordingly.
This isn’t about villainizing parents.
This isn’t about blame.
This is about awareness.
Healing begins when we stop asking, “Who’s at fault?”
And start asking, “What pattern did my nervous system learn?”
Because when we don’t look at it, we repeat it.
And when we do, gently, honestly, sovereignly, we get to choose differently.
Healing is not punishment.
It’s permission.
And choosing healing is choosing to end the loop.
For yourself.
And for everyone who comes after you.
Esther.Nelda.com