I can't hate the people I once loved.
I've tried.
I've replayed the lies. The betrayal. The gaslighting. The broken promises. The damage that was done.
But however much it hurt, hatred just won't live in me for long. That isn't weakness. It isn't forgetting. And it is definitely not me excusing what happened.
The truth is, my mind always reaches for understanding. Not excuses. Understanding.
I can usually see what's driving someone, even when I can't stand what they did.
I can see the frightened child behind the controlling adult. The insecurity behind the arrogance. The abandonment wound behind the manipulation. The shame behind the mask.
That doesn't make the behaviour okay. It just makes it make sense.
Some people think healing means learning to hate the one who hurt you. I don't.
Healing, for me, is being able to look straight at the truth without needing hatred to hold it in place.
I don't have to call someone a monster to know they caused harm. I don't need rage to remember my boundaries. I don't need revenge to prove my experience was real.
What happened, happened. The damage was real. The lessons were expensive.
But carrying hatred for years just keeps the injury alive inside me, paying rent in a space that should be mine.
Understanding someone does not hand them back access to me. It doesn't earn them another chance. It doesn't mean I owe them forgiveness, or a place in my future.
It just means I can see the whole picture.
That people often act from their own wounds, fears, and broken ways of coping. Some become apeople-pleasers. Some become rescuers. Some become controllers. Some become narcissists.
Different survival strategies. Different damage.
The older I get, the more I see it: understanding and boundaries can live side by side.
I can understand why you did it. I can understand where it came from. I can even feel for the pain that shaped you.
And still decide it has no place in my life.
That's the part people miss.
Compassion is not permission. Empathy is not access. Understanding is not agreement. Forgiveness is not reconciliation.
I don't hate the people I once loved.
But I don't abandon myself trying to save them anymore either.
I can hold two truths in the same hand.
You were hurting. And you hurt me.
I understand what drove you. I still honour my boundaries.
I wish you healing.
Just not at my expense.