Some of the “no’s” you got growing up were the most loving thing anyone did for you. You’ll see it later.

Refusals from someone who cares often look identical, at the time, to refusals from someone who does not. Distance is what sorts them. Years later you can see which ones were protecting something you could not yet see and which were about the other person, and only the first kind quietly becomes a gift.

If you are angry about a limit you were given, hold the question open rather than settling it now. Ask what it might have been guarding. Some will still look wrong when you look again, and that judgment is yours to make.