07/12/2025
For thousands of years, humanity has been carrying a cross on its shoulders.
Not a wooden one but the silent cross of beliefs, expectations, and painful ideas we were taught to accept as truth.
Many of us grew up with messages like:
“You have to suffer to be beautiful.”
“You must always be strong.”
“Be nice, even when it hurts.”
“Give your cheek to the one who slaps you.”
“Endure it. Hold it in. Don’t complain.”
“Carry everyone else’s needs before your own.”
These became the nails that held us to the cross.
Little instructions that taught us to ignore ourselves,
to please others,
to shrink,
to stay silent,
to feel guilty for simply being human.
And for a long time, we believed it.
We stretched ourselves thin trying to be “good enough.”
We let our own truth bleed quietly inside us.
We hung there between who we are
and who we thought we had to be.
But here is the turning point:
We don’t need to carry the cross anymore.
We don’t have to keep repeating the old rules.
We don’t have to live life apologising for our own needs.
We don’t have to suffer to be worthy, lovable, or whole.
The cross can be put down.
The weight can fall.
The story can end.
We are allowed to choose a different path:
one of honesty, self-respect, boundaries, and real love
love that doesn’t require sacrifice, silence, or pain.
Because the truth is:
you don’t need to suffer to be beautiful.
You don’t need to offer your cheek to be spiritual.
You don’t need to carry everyone’s pain to be good.
You are allowed to be free.
Today, we step down from the cross,
and we walk forward lighter,
truer,
and finally
ourselves.