daily strategies: prompt
Asked and Answered
Knowing what is right for me and for others
Age. Age is the answer for me. Rarely was I brave in my youth.
Why? Because I lived to please others. My worth was based on what others thought of me. I had to be liked above all else.
And, I was liked as long as I pleased others.
At 50 years, I made the decision to leave my then-husband and begin a new life with our adopted daughter. Later, I would find my soulmate, Ben.
Although those were very personal decisions that didn’t directly involve anyone outside my small family circle, friends and other family members disapproved. Because I wasn’t listening to their advice. Because my attention wasn’t focused on them. Because I was doing what I wanted to do.
I’d like to say that’s when I learned the lesson that living to please others was not a sustainable, healthy life. But, I didn’t. At least not completely. The lesson was taught and learned in bits and pieces. Bites small enough for me to swallow.
Life has a way of teaching in spoonfuls.
Not until my early 60s did I realize that I had the right to make me happy. If others can be happy with…
