18/06/2025
You never know how you’re going to respond to something until it happens to you.
You don’t.
You have NO idea.
A couple of years ago, I found myself navigating a situation I never imagined I’d find myself in. Ever.
Before I was involuntarily thrown into those murky, terrifying waters, I truly thought I had the answers. It was simple. It was straight-forward. If x happened, my response would be y.
Then it DID happen.
It happened to ME.
And it wasn’t simple at all.
It wasn’t straight-forward.
It was messy. It was raw and complicated and nuanced and confusing and absolutely NOTHING like I imagined it would be.
NOTHING.
You don’t know until it happens to you.
You just don’t.
And I look around and I see so much judgment and shame from people who have never been in those situations themselves.
And all I can think is—
How can you condemn someone else for the choice they made, when you have no idea what they’ve been through? How can you be the judge? How can you know what the right path is for them? How?
HOW?
All I know is this—if you had walked that same path, there wouldn’t be judgment.
If you had walked that same path, there wouldn’t be indignation or contempt or shame.
If you had walked that same path, there would only be one thing—GRACE.
Heaps and heaps of grace.
Only compassion. Only empathy.
Only grace.
You don’t know until it happens to you. You don’t know what you would do. You don’t know what you would choose.
You don’t know how hard it is.
You don’t know what it costs. What it feels like. What you stand to lose.
So the ONLY thing you should give is grace.
Just grace.
CTTO.
