'Be who you really are; not who you have allowed yourself to become'

Many bad things will happen to us in this lifetime. People will betray us. They will lie. Some things, like death of a loved one are impossible to avoid. There is no doubt that it will change us. Hell, we change each moment we are alive. What prompted this post, was a friend who said something which really struck me. She was saying we should leave our past behind. We cannot, nor should do that. Each moment we go through helps us to become. I told her that we should learn from it, feel it, accept that it has changed us, but not to let it change who we are at our core. Not to steal the very heart of who we are. She said... Too late. It almost broke my heart by the inherent loss of hope in that statement. I told her it is NEVER too late. We can always take ourselves back. Yes it is difficult. Yes, we will always be different from the experience, but we CAN learn how to keep OURSELVES. 
Please don't lose hope. We will always have each other to help us see our way back if we lose it. Always. I know there are so many of us who feel we will never be the same after such things. This is true, but we can still be good. We can still have hope and we can still stay true to ourselves. A few of my favorite quotes illuminate this so very well. First, 'Be who you really are; not who you have allowed yourself to become'. Always ask yourself who you are becoming and if it is someone you don't want to be....seek a way to find that person. Second, 'Just when the caterpillar thought the word was over; she became a butterfly'. Sometimes just when we feel we are at the end of our rope.....we find it is longer than we thought and there is more beauty and love there that we would have imagined. Thirdly, 'Everyone admires the beauty of the butterfly, without really thinking about what it had to go through to get there'.  We may have to go through hell, trial by fire; more than we ever thought we could bear, but we can still emerge even more beautiful and triumphant for that experience. Feel the hard things (don't try to downplay or diminish them), learn from them....then emerge triumphant and be who you have the potential to be. No it will not be easy, but none of the most wonderful and rewarding things truly are. Love, Mishka.
Lastly, if you are still struggling...there is a great support group online that has groups for everything from depression to many ailments that we all struggle with to situations like abuse. I am sharing the link for anyone who feels they need it. Feel free to private message me if you want to know my 'name' on there. Yes, I need someplace special sometimes too. 
www.dailystrength.org    <3