OK

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon listening and crying with a friend who is going to be getting a divorce.  As the kids were running in and out of the living room, screaming and shouting oblivious to what was going on, the room seemed so quiet and still.  I knew what was ahead for this friend, that's why she was there.  The one thing that I hate sharing about myself, my divorce, is the one thing that has led many friends to my couch for crying sessions.

Each time I listen to a new divorce story, what led to it, the obvious signs of what "should have been seen", and the fear of what is to become; it takes me back to my divorce and my story gets told again, but it still doesn't make it any easier.  My friend yesterday wanted me to tell her what to do and she wanted reassurance that everything was going to be fine.  I didn't have any answers for her, I didn't know what she should do, but I did tell her that I knew she would be OK.  She asked me if my divorce was one of the best things that I ever did in my life.  I could not answer but I do know that because of my divorce I discovered who I really was and what I was capable of on my own.  I had to learn to stand tall and not be ashamed of some of the smudges in my past and that life moves on even after tragedy.


My friend will move on with life, she will discover that she is much stronger then she ever thought, and she will look back someday and wonder how she ever got through it all.

Soon I'll leave Virginia and think about all these wonderful people I have met here, where they went or which direction they led their life in. All of this coming and going of people and places reminds me that all of this is so temporary.  The misery and joy of life is not forever; it's such a small piece to the much bigger picture.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.  You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror.  I can take the next thing that comes along.'

Eleanor Roosevelt