Don’t carry the weight of someone else’s wounds.
Anger. Frustration. Self-doubt. We often bear these as punishments for mistakes that aren’t ours to own. A spouse you can never seem to fulfill. A manager you can never quite please. A child who overlooks everything you quietly do. Their unmet needs. Their insecurities. Their shadows—projected onto you.
Sometimes, it’s not you. It’s them.
They’re still learning. Still unhealed. Still not ready to take responsibility for their own mess. But in a complex, often unfair world, it’s easy to become the scapegoat for someone who’s forgotten how to grow but still finds it easy to blame.
If you know, deep in your heart, that you’ve shown up with sincerity—and yet things still fall apart—please remember: it’s not always your fault. And more importantly, it’s not always your burden to fix.
Some people just aren’t ready. Some relationships won’t land. Some mirrors will only reflect distortion.
Let that be their journey, not your sentence.
Cut loose where you must. Walk away when you need to. There’s no prize for pouring your energy into someone determined to remain unpleasable.
Your peace is not a negotiation. It’s a boundary.
