It's been a little over twenty years this month since I escaped an inferno. The nightmares appear in times of profound distress. It took me ten years afterward to really process and come to terms, the smoke still in my lungs, parts of the brain still scarred. It took a few more years after this recognition to see some things I couldn't admit and face. Memories of back then are a plague of anger, regret, shame, sadness and disbelief. But then you must forgive yourself. You don't need to forgive those who almost killed you. You can't believe it happened but you have to ultimately go into the daylight with the wounds and go about life because you almost didn't make it, you almost lost the world. So many before you never had a chance to survive and make it out alive.