I am reminded of the poem 'Ithaca' by the poet Cavafy. 

Basically it suggests that our life goal 'Ithaca' is where we are heading... but to live well we need to totally immerse ourselves in the delights and the difficulties of every stage along the way.  When we reach our goal it may in fact not be all that exciting but what we have experienced along the way will have been well worth the journey.

Another poem from Cavarfy speaks to me of one of the most difficult parts of this journey.  It is called 'Walls'.

Walls

Without consideration, without pity, without shame
they have built great and high walls around me.

And now I sit here and despair.
I think of nothing else: this fate gnaws at my mind;

for I had many things to do outside.
Ah why did I not pay attention when they were building the walls.

But I never heard any noise or sound of builders.
Imperceptibly they shut me from the outside world.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1896)

It seems a lot of my 'voyage to Ithaca' has been about breaking through and knocking down walls that were righteously or helpfully constructed for me by people or institutions I trusted.  Perhaps the more difficult walls to dispose of are the ones I have built for myself while actually believing they were helping me reach my goal.

My recognition  of co-dependency was a Wall breaking experience.  In desperation one day I googled 'How do I escape from Codependency?
First on the list up came 'Escape Plan for codependents'. 
Thank you to  the Blogger who posted it.
I now say Google answers prayers quicker than God!

Studying all the typical codependent behaviours I had to admit that out of the 120 listed 80 of them fitted me, 90 of them I had been taught at church!  Even just reading them and knowing that they described how I lived in my world immediately released me from their power.  Since then it has been a case of acting in spite of what 'they tell me' to do or not do.  Almost immediately I began to have a sense of freedom in the way I behave amongst people.

Out in the world I am happier, more free and far more confident to let the world know me.
The shroud of shame I had worn for as long as I remember disappeared.

I have begun to find my place in the outside world even if at the moment it is a very small world.