Exchanging memories

It's now been exactly three years ago since I first moved into my current apartment in a small suburb to Stockholm, Sweden. And just as I these last couple of days, have enjoyed the sensation of spring approaching in the air, I've noticed how little memories pop up from last year - from here. Walking by the lake, that still is frozen, but now in warm sunlight, had me thinking of last summer laying by the beach. Standing on the balcony and watching the beautiful sunset that now is visible again from this spot, had me thinking of all the pretty swallows flying by last summer. And for the first time in a very long time, there is just peace.

Already in my 20's, I learned from someone that after a break-up, it can take up to the same amount of years that one has been together, until one is fully over the relationship. There is a space and a distance that becomes created through time, which makes it fade away in a more contained way, when we aren't in the same physical location as where the trauma went down any longer. I have since used this, when I have had to overcome other lengthy traumas, such as the Immigration detention in the United States, that lasted for 11 months and I suffered flashbacks from a lot during 2014 and 2015, and such as being locked up in a psychiatric ward here in Sweden that lasted altogether with detention for 2 years and 5 months. I have had to let it go a longer time than that, to get out on the other side. Thus in May, it's been three years exactly since I was released! And then I can move on with my life better, I hope. So relieved! I pray for no more.