After my divorce, I really thought I’d never stop crying. It was the longest bout of depression I have ever experienced alone, and there were times when I didn’t even want to continue living anymore. Yet even in that dark period of my life, I was experiencing a change on the inside. Transforming. Growing. Gaining more confidence and more resilience in myself. Cringy as it sounds, I was metamorphizing from a caterpillar to a butterfly and didn’t even know it. 

I emerged from my shattered life stronger, more capable, and more self-aware. I realized that I was stronger than I thought. I began writing a book. I took trips by myself. I wrote on public venues for other eyes to see! I survived. Maybe the Higher Power knew what it was doing. I needed to know what I could do. Maybe it always knows and we just can’t see it during pain and grief, heartache and fear. We don’t always see the path forward until the pieces of the mystery puzzle are all laid out on the table. Then we can begin to assemble what once was a messy pile of confusion and chaos to create a clearer picture of our life. Maybe we all have to go through hard times to prove to ourselves we are stronger than we think.  

From my healing journey, I learned that sometimes life gives you everything you’ve ever wanted. Sometimes life doesn’t. But it still gives you something and you can take what it does give you and work with it to create something new and different. That’s another cliche, but there are reasons we still refer to them. They may be overused, but they are timeless, reminding us of the happenings in our own lives are reflected in them.

When was that time for you? What challenge, obstacle, or painful period did you experience and how did you overcome it?