One of the mottos that I have created for my own life is "we can let challenges and grief get the better of us or we can be better because of those challenges and grief." Life hasn't necessarily been easy on me over the years. I have dealt with a lot of things - from an emotionally abusive household, an eating disorder, depression, an alcoholic parent, the death of my Mom, an anxiety disorder, and most recently, a miscarriage of our second baby. Wrap that all up into the short 30 years I have been on the planet, and suffice to say, it has been an interesting life.
After losing my Mom in 2004, everything changed for me. I had just lost my best friend, and was now alone to face the world without my greatest cheerleader. Since then I have learned what it means to truly appreciate the simplest of things in life. I have learned to use what I have been through as stepping stones to living a life full of love and joy. I have learned to turn heart ache into a passion for living. I could say that despite all I have faced in life, I am happy....but to word it more appropriately, it is BECAUSE of all that I have been through that I am at peace with who I am and with my life, and can honestly say that I love all that life has to bring, including the pain. It is from the hardest of times that I have been able to feel joy more deeply. It is from the deepest of pain that I have been able to start living who I truly am.
Two of my favourite quotes come from Kahil Gibran, and his book The Prophet:
The deeper the sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain (page 29)
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding (page 52)
Three things have managed to change my life for the better:
a) Living with gratitude
b) Using my grief as an ignition for being better and doing better.
c) Being content but not satisfied (quote by Robin Sharma)
My Mom has been telling me since I was an early teen that it was my purpose in life to counsel others. She saw in me what I couldn't see until fifteen years later. It has been through the loss of our second baby through miscarriage that I have finally opened my eyes and realized that the time has come to share all that I know and to be a cheerleader for other people in their own lives.
As far as my education goes, I have a BA in Psychology and a MS in Education. I have learned however, that no matter what books you have read or whom you have studied, you will never understand the life of another unless you have been there. Luckily this life has provided me the opportunity to understand a multitude of situations and challenges, and I can honestly say that I am grateful for the lessons each one of them has provided me.
