Boundaries are about what I let near me.

I put down the anger and I kept the door closed, and there is no contradiction, because they answer two completely different questions: what will I carry, and who will I trust.

I forgave Gemma completely, and I will never speak to her again, and both of those are acts of self-respect, and they fit together perfectly.

The absence of anger did not mean the return of trust.

It only meant I had finally stopped letting a person who wronged me keep renting space in my chest, long after she had moved out of my life.