Fact is... we're all #broken, hurt, damaged by something that life or loved ones (most often those who were expected to protect us) have dealt out. But after a certain age, it becomes our personal #responsibility to not only admit the hurt, to shine a light on and turn a mirror to the cracked and chipped places, but to #heal it for ourselves. There are many paths to this #healing, and almost all of those paths will initially seem to be as painful as the #hurt itself. This is what causes many of us to avoid those paths, to stop short, to turn back and seek temporary medicines instead. Things that #mask the symptom of pain yet ultimately make us dependent. #Cruelty is 1 of those temporary medicines. When an #unhealed person is #cruel to another, it's a solace. At least now, they think, I am not alone in my hurt. I can see my pain reflected in someone else, which means I am here. I still matter. The dependence on cruelty as a form of #succor is the damaged ego's way of validating its existence. Of ensuring that the deep-rooted pain that defines it, will never go away.