scribblechic

We made this move for a better life, to break the pattern of abusive behaviors that cycled through generations of family. Greed, narcissism, and substance abuse rattled around a closet of disheveled secrets. We honored the cost of these unhappy truths with tolerance and familial obligation; countless holidays and unexceptional calendar days marred by unwelcome guests.

Sixteen years we deferred our joy to the whim of our elders. We made excuses for poor behavior until our children outgrew our explanations; until no amount of love could mend a legacy of illness. The lessons we had fashioned for our children were not of tolerance, but of enabling over self-worth.

Somewhere along the way our empathy for the toxic spiral into manic behavior had betrayed a greater responsibility to a message of mutual respect. In our home everyone has the right to be loved and the responsibility to act with accountability. Period.

These boundaries have become red flags of aggression, a challenge to those who cannot yet see the tragedy of their behavior or hear our plea for peace. Aggressively we have been pelted with financial and emotional manipulations. It is a sad tragedy that has informed a new ending.

It is also a beginning. We carry the scars of the past with a tender mindfulness for the mistakes we dare not recreate for our children; a future informed by hope, a greater consciousness for a cycle that ends at the place we left.

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