Today I went back through and read the very beginning of the Friends of Tory thread.

It's amazing.....not only the amount of support and love I had (and still do), but just how absolutely different I was.

Of course, I was still living in the very newness of the situation.....but things that I said just a few months ago sound alien to me now.

I am starting to achieve that balance between compassion and self-protection. I am still seeking to do what is right by others, but if it conflicts with what is right by me, I will protect myself.

It's just weird to read all those things I wrote when this was first going on. How weak I sounded. How pathetic, almost. I know I wasn't, but reading it now.....

It's a very wonderful reminder of the love I had and have, the support that carried me through, and the many changes that took place between that time and now.

Every day I am closer and closer to being free from all of this. Every day I feel more and more strength. Every day I remember the fires I went through, see my scars, and know that they are scars....not open wounds.