Plans vs Fate and silver linings.

[trytofindbalance]

The Worst Time In Your Life post really got me thinking about this. I look back on my life and think of all the plans I made for myself and how some of them got derailed, usually through circumstances out of my control. I can remember being devastated at times and then as my life moved forward there seemed to be a silver lining attached to that difficult situation.

One example would be having an ectopic pregnancy and subsequently learning that I could not have my own children. It was a very difficult time for me emotionally. I tried to push it away, but it came out in other ways. DH bought me a horse at the time, really hoping that she would help in the healing process. I ended up meeting a young girl at the barn who desperately needed a home. We weren't even remotely thinking about adopting or taking on a child. After many discussions we decided to take her in and it's been the best thing that's happened to all of us. So out of the darkness and into the light.

What difficult experiences have ended up changing your life for the better?

[thyme4change]

None of my silver linings have been as beautiful as that story.

[annestacey]

I've found that pretty much every bad thing that happens to me ends up having a silver lining. So now, everytime things go south, I just make myself realize there's an open door there somewhere and I need to go find it.

Ok except for that jerk I was involved with and now I can't go back home to visit my family without being stalked.

But aside from that, the silver lining is always there.

[Plain Old Petunia]

That is a beautiful story. <sniff>

[Gardening Grandma]

That really is a beautiful story. One time immediately comes to my mind. I had applied for a transfer to a job with a much better future. It was offered to me, BUT it entailed going out of town for extended period of time for training -as long as six months. At the time I was a single parent of two teenagers without any family to back me up. There was no way I could leave them, so I had to decline even though I badly wanted that job and was concerned that my existing job was going to become obsolete.....

The silver lining was a few months later, I was offered a nearly identical job and the training was in the same city. Even better, the new job was where I met DH.

[Formerly SK]

The silver lining of my son's autism is it softened me. It gave me clarity to what was absolutely most important in life and I was able to step away from all the BS in our culture. My marriage is so much stronger, my patience and acceptance of my kids (and people in general) increased, and I have a much stronger sense of my own power to do good in the world.

This is a great thread!