I am so sorry to hear about that, Inky. I do know that feeling of shame and guilt. I know I am finding my own path to healing right now. Maybe I just expect the best of people, and when that doesn’t happen, I am disappointed and then ashamed of myself for expecting better. Which is yet another pot hole I struggle to stay out of.

I had thought that’s what I was doing, about not going “on and on about it, but frame it in a simple and direct way,” but apparently some people can’t handle it. So, that was another learning experience on top of everything else. If they are “worthy”– I am also struggling with this– how to decide who is worthy or not. That I get to choose who gets to be in my life. That I am the one that can at least control some of that, when I couldn’t control the assault or my own reactions to it.

I do hope that your own soul wounding experience heals.