Life doesn’t always hand you the perfect life—happy marriage, healthy kids, plenty of money, big house and new car, or the body with no pain.

It took me well into my early forties to grasp this but once I did, that was when I really started LIVING. No more chasing the external things that I thought would bring me happiness, and instead finding acceptance for what IS.

The marriage that didn’t work out, the daughter with special needs, struggling to make ends meet, and a diagnosis of chronic pain may not be the “ideal” but they sure have taught me how to handle life’s unexpected events. With this understanding and learning to resist the attachment to a so called perfect life, I have come into such a graceful and beautiful outlook on this beautiful life that I have created.

The choice is mine. All mine. And I choose happiness, despite the unexpected stuff that has shown up in my life. It’s all perfectly good.