The Moment Everything Broke Open

It was very early in my separation — a time when everything already felt raw, disorienting, and unfamiliar. And then came a moment that cracked me open even more:

I was told I could see our three kids one weekend a month.

Those words hit my system like a bomb. My body went cold, then hot. My mind spun. My heart collapsed. It felt like the ground had disappeared beneath me, and my relationship with my kids was suddenly in jeopardy.

In that moment, something ancient lit up inside me — the conflict mind — and it did what it always does when it senses danger:

It made me the victim…
and her the villain.