Don't Read This! (If you can't handle a harsh dose of reality.)

Be forewarned: this blog will not be the normal happy, go for it, funny, life is good blog you're used to reading here. Writing has always been a kind of therapy for me. And if writing about the difficult things helps someone else as well, all the better.
It's amazing how quickly things can change. I know life is like that, a river that is forever changing, and I know what I just said is yet another cliche. However, I have found that life is one very large cliche. And I sit here wondering how I could have missed that one simple truth: that most cliches are true. Whether we want to admit that or not, they are. My life is proof.
I also used to wonder how "normal," hard working, folks could ever possibly end up homeless. Now I know. After a series of bad decisions that led to two failed businesses, bankruptcy, repossessions, and financial ruin, my husband, son and I find ourselves living in a bedroom in my in-laws house, quite literally one step from the street. Each day reduced to simply trying to dig your way out of a very large hole, like trying to fill a bottle with sand one grain at a time. It's agonizing, miserable and hard.
Very quickly you learn what you can do without, that so much of what you thought you needed, was really only what you wanted. There is a big difference.  "It's not having what you want; it's wanting what you have."
You also find out who your friends are. As someone who has always worked with the public, and volunteered, and been very "out there," I thought I had "TONS" of friends. Friends and acquaintances are not the same thing. Friends are business associates are not the same thing. Even friends and family are not the same thing. It's sad how many strings you discover when you lose everything. It's even more sad how many "friends" either disappear all together or even worse, show their true colors. Suddenly the vast numbers are reduced to single digits. It's shocking and tragic and hurtful all at once.
But Somehow in the midst of all the pain and all the change and all the loss, a certain kind of freedom begins to emerge and with it, a strange strength.. Don't misunderstand me. There are so many things I wish I could do over. So many things I wish I could have back, and I'm not just talking about material things, but relationships as well. But in the midst of all the hurt and sorrow and depression, I have learned how strong I can be and I have learned who I can really trust, who my friends really are, and what is really important. No, life is not easy, but is it ever? Even when things are "good," isn't life still hard. Of course it is. What matters is figuring out what really matters and finding the truth, and learning to rise above it and just keep swimming.
Cliches all, but true.
Here's to happier, better musings next time.