My 35th Wedding Anniversary

Today is my 35th wedding anniversary and I thought it was a good time to take a step back and reflect on my 35 years and moving into the next phase of Life. I am so blessed and thankful for my life and the amazing gifts and lessons it has brought me. I don’t have any regrets. I’m deeply grateful for a 35 year marriage and the life lessons it taught me. I had the luxury of bringing three amazing children into the world, who all have unique and amazing gifts and talents. I have many happy memories. It was a marriage of great times and rough times. In the really tough times of the last few years, I tried to build something new but couldn’t. I had  my eyes opened to who I was, how I had been treated and what I was enabling. As sometimes you have to do, I hit rock bottom and had to really begin being truthful with myself. I changed in that experience and can’t ever go back to a place less enlightened. So I am moving forward. I have grieved the loss of many beliefs and concepts like having an ideal marriage, or a marriage until death do us part, or a best friend, or a true partnership.

Through it all my persistent investment in trying so hard to be recognized and worthy of love resulted in: possibly reading way too many self help books 😂, running 5 marathons, and completing 3 triathlon sprints. I landed a great job with a great company,  a six figure income, a master’s degree, and lots of things and assets. Some may say I earned success. But I never earned the golden ticket of true peace and happiness. I was often stressed and full of anxiety, until I finally took a step back and created some distance to truly discover me.

Over the course of the last few years, I re-established my relationship with my Heavenly Father and learned of His love. I rebuilt a deep and meaningful understanding of the atonement and the sacrifice my Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ made for me. Now I know peace & love don’t come from the action and words of others. They come from within and through my divinity and the connection to the Divine love of my Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and The Holy Ghost.

I now know that putting my needs aside on a regular and consistent basis allows people to take advantage and can end in depletion, poor physical and emotional health, and eventually having nothing left to give. ( I learned this particular lesson way too many times at home and at work. 😀)

I know that the desire to please others and keep the peace at all costs, can end in losing your authentic self and your voice no longer being heard.

I have learned that free agency is for everyone, and as much as I wanted to believe my actions can make others give me the results I desire, it is not true.

I learned it is not my job to protect the ones I love from pain and be a safety net when they act irresponsibly or make bad choices, that is Satan’s plan not free agency.

I have learned my job is to be loving and kind to myself and others. My  job is to love, guide and direct my children, keep them safe, cared for and yet, still allow them to have free agency, to build faith and resilience on their own by going through hard things and making their own decisions.

I learned it is my job to establish and enforce my own boundaries and to respect others’ boundaries.

I learned it is my job to love people unconditionally. Unconditional love is a divine right of being sons and daughters of Heavenly Father. It is my job to allow people to be who they are but I don’t have to like or love their behavior, and trusting people is not unconditional.

So I move on to the next chapter of my life with gratitude and a greater sense of peace and happiness, with a willingness to be courageous and do hard things, like speak up for myself and my needs.  I know it is OK to make mistakes and it doesn’t make me unlovable. I will not pander for the love and acceptance of others by pleasing them at the cost of sacrificing self. I will learn to lovingly accept, others will disagree with me and it doesn’t diminish my value or my self worth.

I’m forging ahead. Learning to be my authentic self and build healthy relationships that support mutual growth, happiness, laughter, health and love. Knowing there will be hard times and disagreements that will make me stronger and build my faith and resilience.

While some say I tried too hard and stayed too long, others say I didn’t try hard enough or stay long enough.  I know my truth. I know I am doing what is right for me right now.

I will be forever thankful for the last 35 Years, the loving family, and intrinsic gifts and lessons it provided to support the next part of my life. As my patriarchal blessing says “there is work for you to do. You have much to give, much talent, and will be an influence for good throughout your life.”

It is my time. Time to heal, time to move forward, time to give back, time to support my children in loving and different ways, time to be an example to my beautiful granddaughter of courage, strength, and living life to the fullest with authenticity and joy, and time to help others who need love, self confidence and support.

This is the place I will blog my journey.