"Breaking the Cycle" is a very powerful painting! My inspiration comes from: Brené Brown’s "Manifesto of the Brave and Brokenhearted":

There is no greater threat to the critics
and cynics and fearmongers
than those of us who are willing to fall,
because we have learned how to rise.

With skinned knees and bruised hearts,
we choose owning our stories of struggle,
over hiding, over hustling, over pretending.

When we deny our stories, they define us.
When we run from struggle, we are never free.
So we turn toward truth and look it in the eye.

We will not be characters