Welcome back, my beautiful friend.

There was one moment in my healing journey that completely changed the way I viewed my past.

It wasn't forgiveness.

It wasn't understanding.

It wasn't even letting go.

It was learning to see the people who raised me differently.

For years, I could only see them as the adults from my childhood—the people who seemed bigger than life, who made the decisions, who held the power, and whose words and actions shaped so much of how I saw myself.

But one day, something shifted.

Instead of seeing two adults...

I began seeing two little children.

When I look at my parents today, I no longer see the people I feared or misunderstood growing up.

I see two children.

I see my mum as a little five-year-old girl.

I see my dad as a little boy trying to make sense of a world that often felt harsh and unforgiving.

That simple shift changed everything.

Because once I could see the child inside the adult, something unexpected happened.

My heart softened.

Sometimes we forget that the people who raised us had entire lives before we arrived.

They had dreams.

They experienced heartbreak.

They carried fears.

They were shaped by experiences we may never fully understand.

Long before they became our parents...

They were someone's child.

Just like us.

And although that doesn't erase the pain we experienced, it helps us see a much bigger picture.

For many years, I believed my story started when I was born.

Eventually I realised...

My story began long before I arrived.

The patterns.

The fears.

The beliefs.

The ways of coping.

Many of them had already been travelling through generations before they reached me.

That understanding didn't excuse what happened.

But it helped me stop carrying it in quite the same way.

Imagine looking at someone who hurt you...

Not as the adult standing in front of you today...

But as the frightened little child they once were.

A child who was learning about love from the people around them.

A child who was trying to survive in the only way they knew how.

Can you feel how different that is?

It doesn't mean you agree with what happened.

It doesn't mean you pretend it didn't hurt.

It simply allows compassion to enter where judgment once lived.

One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself isn't pretending your childhood was perfect.

It's allowing yourself to see the humanity in everyone involved.

Sometimes the people who hurt us were carrying wounds they didn't know how to heal.

Sometimes they were simply repeating what had been handed to them.

And sometimes...

Healing begins the moment we stop seeing only the adult and begin to see the child who needed love, too.

Because when our perspective changes...

Our hearts often do too.

• Who have I only ever seen as the adult in my childhood?

• What changes when I imagine the child they once were?

• Can I hold compassion without dismissing my own pain?

• How does this new perspective help me move towards peace?