Very true, In It. Listening to all the stories here can be overwhelming. I think it could cause some to be stuck. Especially if all you read about is the people who continue to Stand. This goes back to feeling like you have failed. The only time you fail is if you don't stay true to your core person.
So if your core self says Stand forever, you Stand forever. If your core self says you have had enough, then you move on. Each story is individual and each outcome is an individual's choice.
Interesting discussion - it is true that if you are attached to the past, it is difficult to move on. Even as a stander, I find that dwellling on the past is counter productive - what is in the past is done with, it is over. Each day is a new day, full of opportunities to live better, love better and bless others.
There has been some discussion on other threads about the 'impossibility' of forgiveness. I can totally understand thinking like that and knowing that I am not God who cleans our slate, I know, though, that letting go of the past and looking forward helps to attain this state of forgiveness as it says here:
Philippians 3:12-16
“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.”
Bold emphasis mine
I found myself saying to a friend the other day (a doctor in behavioral and evolutionary psychology), that I was very happy that my children had a close relationship with their dad, happy for them and
happy for him - perhaps that was mission accomplished in this matter? On the other hand, I still have a future to take hold of and I
press on