Gratitude and Forgiveness

This week I've been thinking a lot about gratitude and forgiveness.  Last June when my soon to be ex-husband began to come clean about his desire to leave our 27 year marriage I had all the usual emotions.  I got to experience the five stages of grief in a very real way.  It was like someone had died.  After the initial shock and devastation, I got around to being very anger with him and myself.  I probably stayed there for some months but I did move on.  But now I have begun to actively do something to address those feelings. At the time they just faded into the background.  I recently remembered something a friend once told me,"People come into your life in three ways, for a reason, a season or a lifetime".  She may have been right about that.  Because at this point I have come to believe that he was in my life for a very important reason.  Without him I would not have two incredible children that I completely adore.  That's a pretty good reason to have put up with his crap for a really long time.  So for the last week or so I have on a daily basis expressed my gratitude to God and universe to sending me wonderful children, a good job and a few good friends to help me hold it all together, even when I didn't think I could.

Once I began to really focus on gratitude, forgiveness comes more easily.  I began to see how everything happens for a reason, and for me the results so far have been overall positive.  And maybe most important of all, I am grateful for the opportunities that I can now be open to because I am no longer with someone that isn't aligned with my needs and goals.  This makes it possible for me to change everything.  Next week the search for a better face........