And for the first time in a very long while, uncertainty did not frighten me.
Because I had learned the most important lesson of my life.
You can love someone and still walk away.
You can forgive without forgetting.
You can begin again at any age.
The mint on the balcony was waiting for spring.
So was I.
But I was no longer waiting to bloom for somebody else.
I was waiting to bloom for myself.
And when spring came, when the first green shoots pushed through the dark soil and the world turned soft again, I would still be here.
Free.
Whole.
Finally at home in my own life.
I never went back to the house where I had been invisible.
I never answered when they called to ask for something again.
I closed that door gently, but firmly.
And on the other side of it, I built something new.
Something mine.
Something no one would ever take from me again.
They never touched my name without my permission again.
And I never made myself small to fit into the spaces other people designed for me.
This was my life now.
And it was enough.
More than enough.
