Time to turn sorrow into joy

Okay, enough wallowing in my own problems, hurts, slights...you name it. I was the one who asked Our Lord to detach me and He obliged. He showed me my priorities were out of place. I see that now. This last year has been a great learning experience coupled with a lot of raw emotions. I have a bright future ahead. Our family is starting over if you will with brand new life experiences; we have a place to live, thanks to our dear friends the Meiers' family, the children are all accepted into school, we have a beautiful new Parish to attend so why not look ahead and start feeling some joy for Pete's sake? Enough of this pain stuff. Thomas Merton hit the nail on the head when he said,

"The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt."

I truly believe that no one will ever really know what it is like to walk in each other's shoes because no one truly knows our hearts. Many of us RE-act, sometimes foolishly, sometimes out of hurt, especially if hurt is your bed fellow. Without going into details my childhood was filled with hurt, sorrow, upheaval and unpredictability. Children NEED predictable and need to feel protected. I didn't have that. I have had many traumas even since then (read my past blog posts!) but there comes of time to start anew and not be defined by your past. My past has made me strong and that is one of my positive qualities. I am loyal, sometimes to a fault because of my past. It's now time to look forward and be happy.

Lent is almost over and we look to the joy of Easter where everything blooms anew after being stagnant for months and months. I hope to embrace that thought. I have been saying a perpetual novena to St. Joseph. His card is in my Bible. He sits in between the Psalms. Inevitably after my prayers with St. Joseph I read the Psalms and most of the ones I have been reading speak of joy and being thankful and praising God.

He has shown me my priorities were WAY out of whack. I closed my facebook as well. I kept my blog because I definitely need some sort of outlet. I still feel the pull to facebook, but as each day goes by I realize that I was way too caught up in the lives of other people and when you expend your time on other people you take away that time that could be devoted to Our Lord. I see that now. I pray I have the strength to stay in the quiet of my heart. When chaos is all you have known it's hard to adjust to peace.

Anyway, those are my thoughts for today....