Margie’s only dream was to be a wife and mother.
She married in her early twenties the moment she met the man who checked all her boxes.
When her husband of twenty-eight years announced his love for his college sweetheart, insisting upon divorce, she was destroyed.
“I can’t be alone. I don’t know how to be alone. I’ve never been alone in my life,” she sobbed, sharing her heartbreak.
Margie spent the next three years wallowing in betrayal and victimhood before she realized that she was the only one suffering.
She needed help.
She needed to change.
After an extensive amount of therapy, it dawned on her that solitude wasn’t going to kill her, in fact, she was beginning to enjoy it.
“You know, it’s kind of nice not having someone else in my world with all their needs and demands. It’s nice to watch what I want on TV without having to bargain… or eat cookies in bed when I read or feel obligated to create a four-course meal when all I really want is soup.
“I’m growing accustomed to this chapter of me-time and I’m shocked to admit this, but I’m actually finding comfort in it.”
Margie was discovering her independence and there was delicious freedom in it.
For the first time in her life she was discovering herself; not as a mother or dutiful wife but all which spoke to her outside of these roles.
She was unearthing who was she now that she had a blank canvas to paint her life any way she desired and dreamed.
What spoke to her spirit and filled her heart with joy outside of these obligatory roles?
Whose roles were these anyway?
Answering these questions became a wondrous journey of self-discovery.
Occasionally a loss will net a greater find.
One that we never knew we needed but without it, we would never become who we were meant to be.