Far be it from me to see my onw glass half full, but today I had an epiphany. Not only is it half full, it "runneth over." To quote my favourite band, this truly is "...the end where I begin...Now I'm alive; all my ghosts are gone. I've shed all the pain I've been holding on. The cure to a heart is to move along so move along...What don't kill a heart only makes it strong." There's still pain and anger to deal with and change is never easy, but I'm simultaneously finding and reinventing myself. Despite all of its problems, the good ol' U.S. of A. is still the land of opportunity and I intend to take advantage of that. I could change careers. I could move to Hawaii. I could win the freakin' Nobel Peace Prize. I'd like to thank all the people that aided in and patiently awaited my arrival at this conclusion. Many of you don't know how much I love and appreciate you. And to anyone that may have hindered the process...well, God and karma have a little somethin' for ya.

Good night and God bless,

Jo

I need to learn when to shut up and when to sock someone in the face.

Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the nonpharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.

~ John W. Gardner

Here are some pearls of wisdom I found on quotegarden.com

Take your life in your own hands, and what happens?  A terrible thing:  no one to blame.  ~Erica Jong

You are not responsible for the programming you picked up in childhood.  However, as an adult, you are one hundred percent responsible for fixing it.  ~Ken Keyes, Jr.

The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs.  ~Joan Didion

When you blame others, you give up your power to change.  ~Author Unknown

Even when we know what is right, too often we fail to act.  More often we grab greedily for the day, letting tomorrow bring what it will, putting off the unpleasant and unpopular.  ~Bernard M. Baruch

Dr. Miller says we are pessimistic because life seems like a very bad, very screwed-up film.  If you ask "What the hell is wrong with the projector?" and go up to the control room, you find it's empty.  You are the projectionist, and you should have been up there all the time.  ~Colin Wilson

The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own.  You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president.  You realize that you control your own destiny.  ~Albert Ellis

When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself.  ~Louis Nizer

No man was ever endowed with a right without being at the same time saddled with a responsibility.  ~Gerald W. Johnson

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.  ~George Bernard Shaw

Here is an excerpt from what could become my next book which, if written, will be called The Water Boiling Ritual:

First, I hugged and kissed my cat then placed her in her favourite spot at the foot of the bed. She seemed rather indifferent when I said, "Mommy loves you." It pained me to know she'd come looking for me later and I wouldn't be there. In a final attempt to understand what was happening, I took one last look around the place where I'd spent most of the last five years of my life. Then, I hesitantly placed my keys on the bookshelf and said goodbye to the home that I'd created. It just didn't seem real. This couldn't be happening. I kept hoping that Ashton Kutcher would jump out and tell me that I'd been punked. It felt as though I were being punished and sent away for having done something bad, but I hadn't been bad and was being banished from my kingdom nonetheless. Never before had I felt so much heartbreak as in that very moment when I walked out the door, and I pray to God never I never feel anything similar ever again.

Highly developed spirits often encounter resistance from mediocre minds.