La Joie de Vivre continues.... surpasses... everlasting

Well, I survived...
And... Lo and behold, that same "joie de vivre" kept me from drowning in my sorrows, so to speak.  It grounded me.  Don't get me wrong - I did have my brief moments of insanity and "Poor Aimee" days.  I have survived the two most gut-wrenching experiences of my life - divorce, and being "let go" from a job/employer that I associated my total worth in....  Both in a 2 year time span.  Not easy.  Both tremendously unsettling.  Both shook me to my core.  Made me second guess who I was, who I had been, and who I wanted to be.


I am on the other side now.


I was eating breakfast with a friend this morning and she remarked about how she always pondered about my ability to get through the bad times without her even really knowing how I was struggling.  Of course she is wise and knew that I was struggling, but she wondered how I didn't seem to succumb.


I thought about this today.


Answer: good old fashioned work ethic and.... a little dose of "joie de vivre"...  I was truly blessed as a young child...  What I got that a lot of people don't... is two parents with STRONG work values, a family history as far back as can be recalled of work ethic and value in making something of yourself and not whining... AND... most importantly, I felt loved.  Truly, I felt loved by my parents, my grandparents, my aunts...  That love, that knowledge that no matter what my accomplishments, I was loved for just being "me" was a live saver and that is what transformed into "joie de vivre".  From the bottom of my heart, mom, Dad, Renata, Mimi, Jana, papa, papa bud, Grandma Hattie and Grandma Jean, you saved my soul from bitterness and resentment.  Your devotion to me, to raising me right, has saved me as an adult. 


Yes, I was a child raised by a village...