How I Broke The Cycle...

I started this book at 40. That’s when I finally let go of the things I had no control over. And the truth is, the only control I had was over myself.

During our struggle to guide our first daughter, the extended family went through a heart-rending experience. My niece Jessy, only 17, suddenly passed away from a congenital heart defect that nobody was aware she’d had. It hit me hard—Jessy and Monique were about the same age! Grief over Jessy’s death, and thinking about her parents’ staggering loss brought my heart to a new level of pain. After that, throughout the hard times, my sister-in-law–Jessy’s mother–always reminded me to “Thank God you still have your children.”

I thought a lot about our time on this earth. Most of us assume our lifetime is a span of eighty- or ninety-something years. But there is no such promise! We should be living each day as though it were our last, and making time to love ourselves as well as others.  

By now I’d spent a lot of days praying The Serenity Prayer. It’s ironic; I grew up thinking it was for the weak and the addicts of the world. Now I’m a firm believer that we are all just a step away from weak, and our addictions are many.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference . . .”                  —-Reinhold Niebuhr