this rocky path WILL smooth out

[zig]

thanks joyful girl - i love your username

something is screwy here with the posts - i didn't see yours until this morning - luckily i was reading back!

I think it helps to consider that all of this happens for a reason. There is a lesson in everything; we just have to remain open. The most illuminating stuff doesn't come to us easily, but sometimes it takes something profoundly painful to wake us up to a new, improved reality. One that deep down, we *needed* to discover, but couldn't go there until we almost had no choice.

i've "known" this from the start - but gosh - the way our minds and hearts work - one would thing that "knowing" this would just allow us to peacefully move forward, understanding the reasons for why it is happening, with no resistance whatsoever, just confident that this is the next stage of our lives.

but acceptance added to the above, puts us under a whole other system of pressure that takes an inordinate time to resolve. i'm starting to see that before there is acceptance, there are a whole series of steps to go through - and for me they involve a deeper and deeper understanding of how i was, what i have to emotionally work on and release and the new place i come to.

i wonder if acceptance only really begins to come, when one changes so much that one literally isn't the same person they were before, and then the old "needs" don't apply anymore?

i couldn't see that before, when i hadn't changed and resolved enough issues to be truly in a different place, but now as the shift is happening i start to feel that?

thank you for your kind wishes jg - and i am touched by the thought that i could possibly inspire anyone - i hope that you are doing well - you sound strong yourself - which is impressive,

zig