I don’t know why I would think I had not been affected, that my shell would remain in tact through all of this, but I realized, even with much work to do, that saying the words came a bit too late. I thought I was free of it, I thought I protected myself. But I have realized the past few days that I am more fragile than I believed and the damage has already been done. For all I know it may have been done a long, long time ago. Maybe I would never have seen it accept for revealing all that I have to lose by it. I too look for peace. I think maybe that should be our first name here. Maybe a park, or a forest. A place of peace.