It’s been five years and a half since the hurricane of change hit my life. Some things went down hard and ugly, but it also brought many blessings. As I write this, Florida weather has turned cold, just a day before I head back to San Francisco where I made my home 21 years ago.I’ve spent a wonderful month with part of my family. Something I had never done before but the circumstances, which enabled me to do this, were “perfect.” Perfect because I have no “real” home to go back to, no job, just a life to start from scratch and taxes to pay. Yet, I’m not disheartened or afraid because since that first hurricane hit my life I have survived.

I guess I should be crying my eyes out or paralyzed with fear, but I’m not. For some reason, I know that I’ve been dealt a bad round of cards and that the next will be better. Of course, I need to kick ass now, as soon as I land and get my act together.

I only have to look back at my life to see that I am not alone and know that this too shall pass. I’m not completely broken, just healing and will soon fly.

What is keeping me from freaking out is that I have a backup plan, a schedule I will stick to and buckets full of enthusiasm to start a new life.

I share this in the hope that if someone out there reads this and has also been hit by a “hurricane,” they find solace knowing that if I can rise from the ashes, they can too.