Reflecting on the Random Journey - Part 1

While life has never been easy for me; I have some how managed to survive and succeed by my own definitions. The best part has been that I have survived and succeed with very little help from anyone and have worked long and hard for everything I have been able to accomplish and achieve. 

     Now, this is not to say that I have not had a great support system since I was about 16 years old because I have had the best woman I know standing behind me cheering me on and encouraging me every step of the way since I have known her! She has become a second mother to me! 

However, since my divorce in 2005 life has been a struggle in many different ways because I had to learn to cope with the betrayal of someone I trusted, how to recover from someone who stole from me even as I struggled to be as fair as possible and how to continue on in the wake of the destruction he tried to create. It was difficult to keep up financial obligations made on 2 incomes now that I was down to one income again. It was difficult to clean up and sell the property after the "mysterious" fire. It was difficult to locate new employment in the wake of being a business owner and self employed in an economy that was slowly disintegrating. 

Somehow though I managed.  I cleaned up and sold the property, I found employment, life began to get back on track and I went as far as to be able to go back to school and accomplish my MBA, start my own business and purchase a 2nd home as well as move back to a community in which I thought I would flourish even more! 

I wake up each day, hoping that it is better than the last. Even if the previous days was excellent! I have grown to be more at peace with the life I have chosen. I have grown to enjoy the person I have become. I learn each day more about who I am and what I want in life. Sometimes though one of the most difficult things  to deal with are the people in my life. Some are very negative, some are very selfish, some are full of encouragement, some are judgemental some are closed minded and I have tried to learn to accept person's for who they are rather than who I want them to be. This is not an easy task and often times my actions and words do upset others even unintentionally.  This does cause stressful situations for me because no matter what we will never be able to make everyone happy all of the time and sometimes we just have to realize that making ourselves happy may be the best thing we can do in a given situation. This doesn't mean we don't love our friend or loved ones but sometimes we have to love ourselves more.