Personal Reflection:
The fire is never optional. It comes in the form of loss, betrayal, heartbreak, failure, the unraveling of everything we thought was solid. Most of us spend half our lives trying to dodge it, building walls, distractions, rituals of avoidance. But Jung makes the truth plain: the flames will find you anyway. The question is not if, but how.
Walking through fire is not about stoicism or bravado. It’s about what we choose to carry with us and what we allow to burn away. Some parts of us can’t make it out — illusions, false identities, the roles we cling to because they feel safe. The fire strips those bare, whether we like it or not. What survives, if we let it, is something closer to the core of who we are.
And yes, we emerge scarred. But scars are not just evidence of pain — they are proof of endurance. They remind us that we walked through something that could have ended us, and we’re still here. The difference between a good life and a bad one isn’t whether you burn; it’s whether you learn to keep walking, carrying the ember of yourself that refuses to be extinguished.
Reflective Prompt:
When you look back at the fires you’ve survived, what parts of you were burned away — and what ember did you carry out that still defines you today?
Memoirs of Madness 
I had the opportunity to rebuild my life and took it with both hands. I left behind the negativity, hostility and mental abuse, using the good parts of the experience to grow. I am not proud of the way I left, but had I not, I probably would not be here to write this.
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I’m glad you’re here. Have no regrets for doing whats needed to done
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GREAT question/prompt.
I would have thought by 65 years old, I’d “know myself”, but maybe we are always learning and evolving.
I’ve walked through personal, parental, spousal, and business fires through the years. I’ve come out the other side but store it all inside. It’s easier to share the feelings of the experiences with strangers than with family. The embers carried are the words working their way out.
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thanks, Nancy
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I have walked through many fires, but none burned away as much as did the one where I learned in my 50s that I’m actually autistic. It’s difficult to describe the feeling of realizing so much of what you thought you knew about yourself was true. I’m not going to lie, I miss that person that I was, but not enough to go back, even if I could, because today I am the person I always knew I could be.
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beautiful …thank you
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I’ve survived many fires and I’m stronger for it.
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right on
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