[WillowTheWhisp]

Life is often tough Shady. There are times when everything seems to be going well the something goes wrong as if it's just trying to keep you on your toes.

The worst times in my life seemed like the bottom of a very dark pit at times but I'm still here and I'm still surviving. When my first husband died and left me with 2 young children to bring up on my own I never eve contemplate the possibility that I would ever marry again. I missed him so much it felt like part of me had been ripped out. I think I survived on automatic pilot for a while. Life does go on though and even when it looks the worst there's some sort of solution out there.

It may well be Lindsay finds a better job. There may be a different solution. One day you may both look back and ee that you've grown stronger from the experience and I thik that's really the answer, to look for what there is that can be a positive interpretation and learn from it.

When I was on my own I learned a lot of things. I learned I could survive and I could do a lot of things.

When you're down people often throw out corny old sayings like "when life throws you lemons, make lemonade" and they don't sound very helpful at the time do they? I remember somebody once saying that life is like a journey on an old steam train. Sometimes there's a lot of smoke and steam, if you open the windows you may get soot in your face or even a bit of grit in your eye. You may trvel through smoky towns ad heavily built up industrial areas but now and again the countryside opens up and you get a beautiful view. It isn't about enduring the grime and muck until you get to the next bit of lovely scenery. It's about enjoying the actual train ride.

It will probably never be easy all the time. There'll always be ups and downs and challenges alongside the good stuff. Enjoy the good stuff, learn from the challenges and just keep soldiering on. Remember wrought iron has to endure a lot of beating and hammering and some pretty hot fire but it ends up a lot tougher than cast iron.