Anita,

I see the weather has been very hard on us all. I’m glad you’re still here, always ready to listen and give, but at the same time I also hope you’re safe and well offline amidst such extreme circumstances. Do get enough rest, eat well and keep in touch. You deserve a sanctuary instead of all these insanity.

Thank you for kindly re-reading, summarizing, and relating to my posts. It’s both a relieving and grim surprise for me to know that you also have gone through a similar thing. Children rely a lot on their parent’s reassurance as a solid foundation for growing up. If we’re deprived of such foundation, the adulthood built on top of it may be, in many subtle ways, crooked. I’ve seen it manifest in the silliest and humblest of ways in some of my friends – and at times, in the most destructive of ways. The formula is the same.

I’m glad you’ve opened up and dissolved that stubborn glue. Is it too farfetched to say you emit a loving motherly-vibe around you despite seemingly having quite the critical mother? I haven’t successfuly passed my test in regards to parental issues, but I imagine it must’ve taken a lot of courage and perseverence to overcome. Fixing the roots is always trickier than trimming the split ends.

One of the most interesting patterns I’ve seen lately are children who spend their childhood in the least optimal of family circumstances – deprived of love, ignored by society who saw them being oppressed, riddled with emotional turmoils – to later grow up into an adult that is the exact opposite of the adult their parents are. In these cases, it almost looks like it’s their own way of taking revenge to how their parents might’ve mistreated them. Such shedding of childhood trauma is most impressive.

I’ve digressed. Thank you for sticking with me ’til the end. I must say, though, it’s refreshing to read a story about you after seeing countless threads where you tend to others’ stories.

Stay safe, Anita!