Experiences, whether a life altering event or the small day to day discoveries, they shape you.
Your choices and how you choose to process those choices ultimately results in the person who’s reflection you see in the mirror.
Think about a life changing moment for you and how you made choices getting there and what followed those choices.
Here’s my story…..
I was working at JPL and dating, caught up in the fun of this life when I made the choice to go to Europe for a few weeks.
Upon my return I fell back into the rhythm of that reality and then suddenly I am engaged and then poof married.
I was 23 and so young in so many ways. I clearly remember the night before the wedding sitting on the floor in a hallway with many doubts flying through my head however too caught up in the process, which had taken a life of it’s own, to speak my truth.
I chose to get married.
That choice changed the course of my life dramatically. Moving to Calgary, working, owning a home and sleepwalking through life. Those 3 years married were uneventful and unmemorable until the morning I woke up and asked myself “is this all there is to this life?”
There was no hesitation in the resounding “No” which came to me.
That day I left, no turning back, moved out and on with the life I wanted for myself.
Here’s the thing about choices, they are simple however sometimes the most difficult thing to do. You will doubt yourself, crave the security of monotony and second guess the next choices you make. Push through, the other side of pain is joy.
Do not regret any choice you make in life. The lesson will be great and potential joy worth everything.
So many lesson from that brief chapter of my story.
- I realized how much I did want to have a child
- How much my values are important
- DO not settle…I mean ever
- I am worthy
- I am strong
- What you may consider a mistake is always a lesson
That experience elevated me to my next greatest lesson in joy and sorrow and as I share this small moment in my history, it is with no regret.
Listen when your intuition speaks to you, it is there to guide you through the next doorway and be OK with not knowing.
Let go and be open…..
It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light G.K Chesterton
Here, right at this moment, is not where I ever thought I would be. Two teenage boys, building a life with them without their Dad.
I choose to see the lesson and I know clearly I would not feel the joy I do now if I had not experienced such heartbreaking sadness.
And so I continue to grow with my experiences and choices, learning at every turn.
Let the discoveries shape me…….
Blessing and Much Aloha
Redefining Grief 