The people in my world
 

I read this today and it really struck home:

Don’t you ever REGRET knowing someone in your life.
Good people will give you happiness,
Bad people will give you experience,
While the worst people will give you a lesson,
And the best people will give you memories.

I've been asking my HP about why some of the people in my life are there... and I figure this was the answer. Apparently some of them are there just to serve as a really bad example.

I have the experience, I figure I qualify for the t-shirt and the hat. I really want to learn the lessons I am supposed to learn so that I can move on to a more balanced and peaceful place.

One lesson I thought I had already learned, apparently I needed to learn again: Other people do not get to define me. Even if they say it really loudly, that doesn't make it true.

What have the people in your life taught you that helped you to grow?

That I am strong.

My dad has been gone for many years & despite being an addict, he also loved me & my sister very much & worked very hard in his sober years to counteract some of the damage inflicted on our childhoods. With all of the reading I've d one here on SR, he seems to be a very big exception to the general rule.

One of his favorite sayings was, "It takes a little sunshine & a little rain to make a beautiful rainbow. When life seems full of rain, remember it's necessary to get to the rainbow."

He also taught me that women can do everything men can do & often in a more organized way. Don't worry about who you will marry he said, worry about who you want to BE.

People in my life have taught me what really matters in the end.

That I am stronger than I imagined, and not nearly as powerful as I thought.

That I am lovable.
That I can depend on myself..and only myself.
That ultimately we are alone.

I seem to get those lessons over and over and over, and find people that teach them all at the same time. They are not bad things. Not sure why they still seem so hard.

That I am the only one who can make things better for me.

I deserve a better life than this and have been tolerating things that nobody should ever have to tolerate.