The Road Less Traveled

It's funny the people that God brings into your life right when you need them or their wisdom to help you through something that you thought you might never have been able to over come. There are several people like that in my life, but two come to mind frequently. Maybe because their stories are very similar considering that they both live in two different states and only know each other through me and what I share with them. They both taught me something about who I am and they both did it in two completely different ways.

My friend Dee wasn't my friend at first; we had what most would call a business partnership. I only called her when I need her services and she only called on me when she had something I needed. Then one day we found our selves in a similar situation. We both were grieving over the loss of a relationship. While hers was a separation from her spouse and mine was the physical loss of mine - there was something that was similar and underlining. We both talked about the loss of the physical touch from our spouses and how something so small as holding someone hands meant to us. What it meant for someone to look at us as though we meant something and now not to have that - to miss it was down right heart breaking.

Her separation came around the time of Christopher's passing and her divorce became final around the time of Christopher's one year marker. So, we sorta journeyed together on this path of what is next in life and roughing it as you will through milestones we weren't sure if we could get through. We often sent texts to each other with words of encouragement and requests for vodka or gin. But the important part is we made it. :)

I'm very proud of my friend Dee. She is a strong woman with a great heart and is always there for her friends whenever you are in need. She has come leaps and bounds and has transformed herself from the person that she was before to who she is now - the Dee she always was and dreamed of being and even found someone that cares completely for her (which just warms my heart). She has shown me that even after a great loss - there can be another step in your life, another extraordinary love, another wonderful "something" as long as you leave your heart open to it. Words will never be able to express what it meant to travel this road with her by my side. She taught me allot about my own tenacity on this journey and what it means some times to grin and bare it. To do just what you have to do. She is just one of the people that has made me realize that what I write here needs to be shared with other people going through the same thing.

Then there is my friend Jay. We went to school together and recently reconnected only to find he too was going through something very similar that Dee was going through and almost on a similar timeline. Any while the both of them handled their situations differently (the difference between a guy and girl) he to taught me something about my self as well.

He taught me one of the most important lessons that I will carry around with my self - guys can be just as vulnerable as the girls. That no matter what my fears are in life; there is someone else out there with the same fears. We're all vulnerable. That not matter how hard you fight for something, sometimes it's just not in the cards. That life should be filled with light and love and anything that I would love for my self should also be good if not better for Ethan. He reaffirmed that while not many people understand what I do on a professional level, it doesn't mean it's any less harder.

He too has been through allot is going through his own self discovery and I know that one day he will find someone that cares for him and his son the way he dreams of. To have a relationship filled with radiance and devotion.

I guess you could say that while my journey is the road less traveled by those my age; I have had those in my life who traveled a road just as calloused. They are people in my life that I will always have a place in my heart. They helped me when I needed it the most. My appreciation for them runs deep - they were there when I felt the word spinning out from under my feet, but made me feel like I would never fall. Thank you guys.