I am sure that we have all had experiences in our lives that have taught us a valuable lesson or changed our perspective on life. I have had a few of them. The first one was when I married Michael. Here I was just 19 years old and becoming a wife and partner to him. It was no longer just about me. I know that we were going to have to work together as a couple to make our marriage work. It wasn’t going to be easy and we were going to face challenges but together we could do it if we put our partner first and worked together.
The second experience happened just a few short months after I was married and that was the day they laid my newborn son in my arms. I was completely overwhelmed and realized then that life wasn’t going to be the same. It was no longer just the two of us, there was now three of us and we were going to be responsible for another person. We were going to have to put his needs above our needs. That feeling was repeated two more times over the years as we added to our family.
In 1999, my husband was involved in a pretty serious car accident. We had three young boys and I had just gone back to work full time. Michael spent 4 weeks in the ICU and another week in rehab, recovering from a broken neck and multiple other broken bones. When he finally was able to come home, he was laid up for another 4 months. It was probably one of the biggest and scariest challenges we had faced. There were days that I wasn’t sure that I was going to make it. But it taught us both that when the chips are down and we are faced with something that seems overwhelming, we COULD and CAN do it!!
On February 3, 2010 my mom passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. Once again my perspective on life changed and I was taught a valuable lesson…..life is short and we have no guarantees. We need to live our lives so that when it is our time we have no regrets. There is no room for grudges, hard feelings or judgments. Good friends, family, love, kindness and acceptance…that is what matters.
