I no longer need to be untouched to know I’m better

Dear Delyara, This feels like a sentence I have earned. I no longer need to be untouched by the past in order to trust that I am better. Some things still ache. Some memories still hold weather. Some old fears still flicker under the right conditions. But they do not define the whole room anymore. That matters. Enough to call it healing. Enough to call it real. Enough to let tonight end with gratitude instead of self-criticism.