Take the band aid off.  We cover the wound to let it heal.  I remember being afraid to remove the band-aid as a child because it would hurt.  But the truth is, if we don’t remove the band-aid the wound will never heal completely.  It needs to be exposed after a time.  I spent a lot of my life thinking that the people who hurt me would come back and fix the wound.  I kept it covered long enough so it hurt and reminded me that someone owed me.  Not that that was my direct purpose, but I didn’t think I could move on without that apology—so I kept it fresh and wore it on my sleeve hoping someone would say how sorry they were that happened or that they did that.  Instead of it being a reminder, it became a festering sore that spread throughout my body, my body carried the anger of it even when I didn’t try to overtly express it—but the anger would pour out at the slightest provocation.  That isn’t healing.

What I’ve learned over time is that exposing that wound creates healing even if we have to deal with the pain of it at first.  The pain of keeping it open long enough to heal, the pain that there are people who hurt us that will never apologize.  And the truth is, no one will ever come along to heal us.  That is our responsibility even if we didn’t inflict the wound.  Yes, that other person may have made the cut, but we are the ones who continue to cut ourselves thinking they will regret it someday.  We only hurt ourselves in that scenario.  Allow the process to complete.  Allow healing to take place.  That way the wound only hurts for a little bit and we can reconcile within ourselves what we need to move on.  We don’t need those who hurt us to save us—they wouldn’t be capable of that anyway.  Why would we entrust those people with our healing?  Stop expecting the hurt to heal us.  Stop expecting the hurt people to recognize the damage they caused. Remove the band aid, allow it to heal, and move on.