Life is Your Story

Strength keeps you standing even when the ground beneath you is crumbling. When something traumatic happens in your life, the blow can be so severe, that you find yourself knocking on a friend's door, asking if you can borrow some of their strength. And as you stand with your heart in your hand, and an aching pain in your gut, you are fully aware that you may not be able to return that strength, for some time. Strength allows you to focus on the middle rather than the beginning or the end. Strength is what gets you from here to there. There will always be a demand for strength. There will never be a demand for weakness.  Just keep in mind that weakness usually shows up first. It's up to you whether strength shows up next.

Ending a long, loving relationship with someone who has been your best friend, your other half and whom unfortunately you’ve grown apart from; is a form of death. The pain, the abandonment, the tide of being scared and sick to your stomach and dizzy and confused comes rushing in and drowns you in its wake. It’s a tear, a rip, a cut that won’t heal. And as with death’s occurrence, there are arrangements to be made. You can’t see straight or think or eat but you have to put it to sleep. You have to turn off the machines, say goodbye, bury everything, all of it – the smiles, the tears, the joint ventures, the good fight you fought as one, the losses, the gains, all of it deep beneath the ground never to be seen again. Often there are others who will be hurt whether it be children, extended family, mutual friends or beloved pets. And you know what? It’s an impossible situation because you can’t stay and you can’t leave. And you wonder “How do I star...