It's Your Choice: Finding Growth After Loss

This morning's sunrise was a powerful reminder. Behind every cloud, the sun persists. Even when hidden, its warmth waits, ready to break through. It's a metaphor for life, isn't it? We have the power to create that space, to let the light in.

I love where the world is headed. It's an exciting time of change, and I choose to surround myself with those embracing it. We use this energy to shift, to grow, to open up. It's a conscious choice, a movement away from fear and stagnation.

I understand fear intimately. The uncertainty, the longing for reassurance, the desire for someone to simply say, "It's going to be okay." I've been there, in that desolate space where everything familiar vanishes.

That's when gratitude washes over me. Gratitude for the knowing. The knowing that it's always okay, on some level. This is when I'm thankful for the times my life has been ripped apart – three times in my 50 years. Each time, everything I held dear disappeared. People, places, relationships... gone.

Like death, but different. Death takes one person, maybe more. My experiences were the death of entire realities. Still alive, but without me in them. From my perspective, gone. Dead.

I've struggled to accept that I chose this. That it wasn't done to me. The first two times were decided for me, but the last was entirely my choice. I entered a relationship that didn't feel right, and stayed in it out of fear and a misplaced sense of belonging. It wasn't okay, but I chose it. Until I chose to choose something different.

Each time, it felt like things might never be okay again. Yet, a part of me always knew they would. They had to. The only thing that could change was my definition of "okay."

If "okay" meant things returning to how they were, I'd be lost. But if it means the ability to grow and move forward, no matter what, then I'm always okay.

The world has faced devastation before. Yet, here we are. Nature's force is forward. Destruction gives way to creation. It's the natural order.

So, I choose to look forward. Not to what I thought would be, but to what I want to create. It's the only way it becomes possible. It's your choice, too.