This We Believe
(2009-03-25)
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Special thanks to Dave Ross for production assistance.
Special thanks to Dave Ross for production assistance.
My husband used to have a glamorous job in the music industry and made a lot of money. A lot of money. We had an incredibly large house with a swimming pool and a walk-in closet that would make most women weep with tears of joy at the ridiculously large size of it. We went to expensive restaurants and vacationed in Europe. I had girlfriend weekends in New York and Palm Springs. I even met a few rock stars.
Then the company he worked for went bankrupt and seemingly overnight the music industry suffered the consequences of ignoring the power and the technology of the Internet and there were no more jobs for people like him. He was smart and talented and well-known, but he could not find work. And our life changed.
We moved to a much smaller house without a pool that had a closet so small it indeed made me weep (and it wasn't from joy). There were no more girlfriend weekends or expensive restaurants. The children complained and my husband and I fought out of frustration and disappointment. Yes, our life had changed indeed.
Though it may sound like it, my husband and I are not spoiled brats. We both grew up quite humbly. I was raised by a single mother and he was raised by hard-working parents with mid-western values. We met when I was in college and he was just starting out in his career. He was smart and funny and it didn't take long for me to fall madly in love with him.
I won't lie and say that I don't sometimes miss what we had; but I don't actively miss it, I don't pine away for it. I look upon our past fondly and feel lucky to have experienced it, but that's it. I made a choice. And instead of choosing bitterness by focusing on all that we lost, I chose to be happy, truly happy, with all that we have.
I know what makes me happy. I know what is really important to me: a husband who makes me laugh every day and still loves me passionately after knowing me for almost 20 years, children who fill me with an incredible sense of wonder and joy (when they are not frustrating me beyond belief), and family and friends who give me comfort just by being in their presence. Because when it comes right down to it, happiness is found deep inside of us - inside of our heart, inside of our soul; not inside of our closet. I am happy because I choose to be. I am happy because I am loved. This, I believe.
© Copyright 2012, WEKU
