"we may be through with the past ..."

"... but the past ain't through with us." ~ bergen evans

i've been thinking about this topic a lot lately, how things that happened last week, last month, last year, last decade — basically all the way back to our first grand entry into the world — shapes us and affects us. how all those things, no matter how big or small, all those things have brought us to where we are right now.

a few days ago i was reminded of something that happened just a few years back, and i was surprised by how much it bothered me all over again. i was pissed at first. REALLY pissed. then i just kind of avoided thinking about it, hoping it would just kind of go away on it's own.

("it" being "the hurt i felt over something that a normal person would have gotten past but i'm overly sensitive.")

but instead it just came back a day or two later and disguised itself as generic irritability. now that i've realized that i'm feeling very shitty and short-tempered (which doesn't help when dealing with a toddler) because of this thing, i'm at a loss of how to deal with it.

i guess i thought i was through with this part of my past, but it's not quite through with me.

(i'm now eating a funfetti cupcake with funfetti frosting.)



i like to think that i'm somehow "better" than to be upset by things from the past. but i don't think it has anything to do with self-worth. there's a skill in dbt called "radical acceptance," which, easily translated, means to just accept something. it doesn't mean you have to like it or that you want it. you just have to accept it.

well i accept that i get pissed about stuff that that happened a while ago, and sometimes it comes back to haunt me a little bit. i accept that it's how i'm wired. i accept that i'm not always going to be cheery, i'm not always going to be able to handle stress or anxiety without some form of panic racing through my body at a neck-breaking speed. i accept that my family and friends know this about me and, somehow, accept and love me.