This page is a work in progress. I want to write a cute 100 word summary of this topic, but life can rarely be summed up so neatly. At least not honestly. Although I meant it when I said my journey has gotten better and better, that certainly doesn’t mean it hasn’t been difficult at times. We all know that to be true of life in general.

May 2014 saw a conclusion to our 3 year/3 month-long lawsuit against Waste Management regarding my accident. It marked the end to the scrutiny we were under from attorneys determined to prove I was “faking” or that I was somehow to blame for my accident. Those were some of the hardest days (emotionally) of my life, coming on the heels of the hardest time (physically) of my life. So of course we were ecstatic that first of all we didn’t have to go to court (where the scrutiny would’ve intensified), secondly we were able to pay off Blue Cross and all medical bills, and finally that we were able to cut down the mountain of debt we had incurred in the previous 3 years. We were also able to pay off our home mortgage and all consumer debt while still replacing our retirement funds that we had drained to have money to live on since I’m no longer able to work as I previously did.

That would seem to be a fairy tale ending except for that while we were able to obliterate debt, I have not been able to get away from the pain that continues to be with me everyday. And when the temperature dips below about 50 degrees, the ache that awakens me every morning won’t let me fully enjoy that fairy tale.

I don’t want to complain, these are just the facts. You will never hear me talk about the pain in my arm, because it is not the focus of my life. Neither is the relief I found after paying off debts the focus. I feel clearly centered on one thing. Jesus. Simply. It’s not something I say to sound spiritual, it is again just the fact of this new chapter of my life.

One thing I am trying to figure out now is how to combine my love of planning and traveling with the observation that my pain is significantly reduced in warmer weather. And it has been the lack of consumer debt that has allowed me to explore that. So when we travel during the winter to warm places, there is more to my motivation than a fun vacation. I have sadly learned that there are people who were happy to be supportive in the weeks following my accident, but they aren’t all happy to see us have opportunities to travel. In short, it was OK when things were bad for us, but now that God has turned all the bad around to be a blessing…….

Enough of that, I purposefully don’t dwell in those things, one of the most important lessons I’ve learned over the last few years is that I can only strive to please God. Pleasing people is exhausting! So now I focus on the only one that matters knowing that He will provide me with loving friends and family (probably like the one who cares enough to have read this page).

I am still a work in progress, imperfect, often hot-tempered and selfish. But I’m better than I used to be, and with His help I will learn more and more how to represent Him in the way I want to.