Five Minutes

I stood back as law enforcement used bolt cutters to remove the padlocked chains from the French doors of my home, courtesy of an unbalanced husband who was angry that Id dare to leave home when he had warned me away in the first place. It is in moments like these that we wonder how the road we’ve taken has turned into a war zone littered with land mines just waiting for us to fine them expectantly. As the chains came crashing down, I felt the weight of eight years of torture escaping. From every pore in my body. The first glimpse of what was my new past was my mother’s win overturned amidst the clutter that had once been my home. He’d destroyed what he thought and treasured, just his anger was short-sighted because he had, in all actuality, awakened my lost soul and allowed me to find the strength I’d thought was lost forever. I gathered the necessities and walked a new path right out the same doors he’d chained.

“Life doesn’t have to just be about going forward. Reverse in there so we can go a little way back, reflect and choose a new path.” – when I when back in to see the destruction.

- Stacey Tuck