Someone once told me- you can survive what broke you and still miss the person you were before it. And it gutted me. Because I kept thinking healing meant picking a side - either strength or softness, either gratitude or grief. But healing isn't a choice. It's the war between both. You can thank the version of you that clawed her way out, and still mourn the one who had to die so you could live. That's what healing really is - loving the fighter, grieving the ghost, and learning to live with both of them in the same skin.