Almost Divorce Part 36: The change begins inside of YOU

This series is  published no less than once a week on Thursday’s.  Or you can start at the beginning here

A timeline can be found here.

http://simplygoodstuff.tumblr.com/post/5071454126

How did you do it?  This is the number one question I am asked about our reconciliation.   I’m not sure I have a cut and dry answer for you  Lovies, but I will try to represent and tell this part of the story in the same raw and no holds barred manner that I have given you the rest.   But you simply must understand that this part of my world is a little more private, because it is the marriage I currently enjoy,  instead of some bad fairy tale of the  devil I willingly danced with.  I always try to be very careful not to give other people’s secrets away in this public forum, unless those secrets were lies, and then well… you’ve already seen that part.

I’ve often said that I have a 1% husband. A Husband who is better than 99% of all husbands out there.  He is MY husband so I suppose it is a good thing that I feel this way, but I want to get in writing those same type of caveat items that prefaced the  r/gonewild and gone wild chat posts.   My marriage is not perfect, there is no perfect marriage because there are no perfect people.  There  is also not a perfect person for you or for him, because neither of you are perfect. You are human, and as such beautifully flawed and always in some state of incomplete.   There is no perfect mate, perfect time, perfect anything.  It is a nice ideal to shoot for, we should seek to change, grow, become more, less, better whatever adjective you choose for whatever “it” is you seek to change.  There are things about myself,  Babu and our marriage that drive me absolutely NUTS!   I fold them into this best life we are living because quite frankly that is simply just how life is.  If you want happiness the first thing you need to do is let go of holding so tightly to whatever you think happy is.    Here is a huge news flash for you Lovies,  THINGS DO NOT ALWAYS TURN OUT OR EXIST IN THE MANNER YOU EXPECTED IN YOUR HEAD, LET IT GO AND ADAPT.   Holding on too tightly to that expectation is only going to cause you emotional angst. Don’t wallow in that angst, if you spending time being pissed, angry, sad, or whatever other negative emotion you are harboring about what you wanted/expected/think you deserve you are only poisoning yourself and staying stuck.   You are not a tree, if you don’t like something in your life, then seek to change it. And by the way the key to seeking to changing it is not in influencing or controlling others or the situation. It is in seeking to look inside YOURSELF and making the changes there.

Welcome  to life. Put on your Big Girl Panties or Big Boy Boxers and own it.

Oh you don’t like that answer? Neither did I when I first discovered it.  Hell, I have remind myself of  my own mantra on a regular basis.    The crazy bitch lives inside of me, right next to the pathetic one, the weak one, etc.. ALL of us have those little pieces of not perfect inside of us.  Your first key is to spend some mindful time seeking to  become self-aware. Examine yourself, reconcile yourself and learn to love yourself.   Forgive yourself, forgive others.  No one else can do this for you, NO ONE ELSE CAN DO THIS FOR YOU.   Don’t like something inside of you,  don’t know who you are, don’t know what is wrong with you, don’t know how your life got “here”? All of the answers to those questions are there, inside of you, if you will only put in the emotional and mindful practice of discovering them and working to tweak them in whatever manner you think is best for you.   Got childhood issues, mommy issues, daddy issues, trust issues, control issues, whatever issues. OWN THEM!!!!!!!!!!!! You are an adult now, you are  no longer owned by your past.   Your past does not control you, your past does not dictate  how your future has to be, at any given time you are in some control of the end of your own story.  Don’t like that answer?  Get the fuck over it and do the awful  sometimes gut wrenching but so very worth it in the end work of change or choose to stay in whatever  state of misery and stuck you are in.   It is quite bluntly your choice. How badly you truly want it is shown by how hard you CHOOSE to truly keep working for it.

I’m no better than you, no more capable than you, I’ve just had to learn this the hard way and I’m passing along some already started on this  journey  notes.   It is not easy work, it is not fun work, is is not short work.  It is continual work.   I promise the more you do it the better you will get at it. The faster you will see when you start down a path of old behavior or thinking,  the less time you will allow yourself to remain there, and the faster and with more  conviction you will be able to course correct yourself with LOVE instead of judgement and beating yourself up.   You are never going to be perfectly the way you want to be, and neither is your life, your marriage, your kids, your job, your friendships or anything else  in life, save a really great vodka and a good pair of designer jeans that transform your ass into  something magical.    I’m not special and I’m not always good at taking my own advice.   If you are human, you can do this. Don’t underestimate yourself, your worth, or what  kind of life you deserve to  choose to live.

It may take medication, it may take finding a good therapist, it may take using other bad things to cope for a while, it may take running or kick boxing or Zumba or cycling.  It may take a LOT longer to do than you’d like, it may be MUCH harder than you ever imagined and there will be times when you simply want to throw your hands in the air and say FUCK IT.    Find  in yourself the strength to go on, find GOD if you choose to believe in HIM and the power he can provide you in all things, find a network or even one true friend to lean on, find books to help, blogs to read. Seek these things out, trust in yourself and go for it.  You will be amazed at how much “better” things will get little by little or sometimes even by leaps and bounds.  All because you did, are doing, want to do the hard work of affecting change  within yourself.

You are beautiful, you are worth it, you deserve your version of a good life and you need to love and respect yourself enough to make it happen.

Lesson #1 is over, the key to putting it all back together for us was that we each sought to change ourselves.   More to come soon Lovies.