I can hold both the pain and the love now

Dear Delyara, That feels like maturity to me: being able to hold both. The pain and the love. The gratitude and the disappointment. What my parents gave and what they couldn’t. What they tried and what they missed. For a long time I thought I had to choose one story. Now I know life is more truthful than that. Holding both doesn’t erase the hurt. But it makes my relationship to it gentler.