This is an excerpt from a recent advice column by Amy Dickenson:

“I think that many of us imagine closure as an open line that is finally stitched shut into a circle, completing a difficult journey. But my own experience with family dysfunction, loss and grief was more like a spiral: As you make your orbit through life, you pass the same points over and over again, even as you create more distance from the events and people that caused you pain. Each orbit brings more useful perspective…Your beautiful and healthy life is a triumph. Carry that with you as you go.”