ACOD Forward and Back


Adult Children of Divorce heal.  We move forward.  We laugh again and have some hope for a happy future.  We walk , looking ahead. 

That is what I experienced a few days ago.  I was looking for some old photos and spent time going through many old photo albums.  I saw photos of a once-together, happy family.  Amazingly, I could view these photos from the past without bawling and with actually feeling warm feelings of what we had in the past. I didn't feel like I was grieving what we lost, but instead I was able to be thankful for what we had.
Moving forward felt good.  I was grateful I had come so far.

Then.... 

I stopped in my tracks and began to move one step back.  I won't go into detail about what it was THIS time, but I think all ACODs know this phenomena.  It can be a new story you hear from a relative or past neighbor about something you never knew before concerning your parents marriage.  It sometimes is a phone call.  Or a decision you need to make.  It can be driving in a car past a familiar place that was special to your family in years past.  SOOOO many things can cause us acods to take a step back and grieve a bit again.  The evidence that I am healing and moving forward helped the blow of my stepping back.

Adult children of divorce step back.  We stop for awhile.  We grieve again and wonder what the future holds.   But we keep walking. One step at a time.  One foot in front of the other. 


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