How we remembered to be happy

We were three kids and one whopping mortgage into life. We were busy. We had friends. Hobbies, jobs, and more fun than you could shake a stick at.

(does one shake sticks at fun?)

And all of this meant nothing. We had so much going on, so much keeping us busy, that we forgot to be happy about it.  We had what people (apparently) thought we should have. House, kids, jobs, and each other. 

We were “happily” married. We were “successful” by general standards and expectations.

And miserable. Utterly miserable.

So we got rid of it. We wiped our slate clean. As much as you purge your closet come spring, we purged our LIFE. That included jobs, cars, houses, everything. We sold off furniture we didn’t like or need, and we emptied our life of all the stuff.

We purged friends. Long standing relationships that had turned bitter over time. 

We gave ourselves a complete “Do over”

And this time we were going to do it right.

New jobs. Fresh start. No neighbours. We were only going to allow things we WANTED into our life. We were going to choose the pieces and be strict with our guidelines.

We were going to be selfish. Very, very selfish.

We based our new beginning on that very thing:  “What do we WANT?”

And brick by brick we added things in. Our priorities were (and will remain) family, job and home.  We slowly allowed people into our new life and spent time ensuring mistakes we had made in the past didn’t occur again.  We stood by the “slow and steady” objective and making sure we allowed things to happen naturally and without rush.

We made ourselves a family unit, with very little outside influence for a good chunk of time. It was the 5 of us. First, second and last. We supported each other, we played together, we worked together and we made our family stronger.

Now, almost two years into our new life, we are in a place we love. We are no worse off, in ANY way and have created a life we all feel honoured to have.

It took a huge risk, and it hurt a few feelings along the way, but by stripping out the old and scrubbing clean our scars healed and we came back stronger.

We all need a do-over every so often, but could you imagine having the chance to Do-Over your life as you currently know it? Could you, would you, start again? and if so, what would you dream of doing?