The Year Of The Roller-Coaster

As the Hol­i­day sea­son is slowly com­ing upon us, I reflect on how blessed I was this year. It was noth­ing short of a roller-​​coaster ride — from reach­ing the high­est of the highs, to sink­ing to the low­est of the lows.

But this year, I was incred­i­bly blessed. For one, I learned so many lessons. Some were harsh. Very harsh. But in the end, these pow­er­ful lessons all gave me so much to be thank­ful for.

Yes, it was also a tumul­tuous year to say the least, includ­ing a sep­a­ra­tion and divorce, and the pass­ing away of sev­eral great friends and peo­ple I looked up to (such as Corey Rudl, Peter Drucker, Richard Pryor, among many others).

But in the process…

… I learned what love truly is.

I’m at peace with myself and hap­pier than ever. In busi­ness, I stopped tak­ing on new clients, launched new prod­ucts and reached new lev­els of suc­cess. And I accom­plished many of these with, and with the help of, my next and most impor­tant bless­ing — which is, above all, the fact that in 2005 I also found my Soul Mate.

I lost so much this year. But She was there with me, for me and by me. And I’ve gained 10 times more than I lost, that’s for sure. Of course, some of these losses were unavoid­able. Oth­ers were choices. But many were at the same time bit­ter­sweet and even painful.

One of them is the fact that, while I may have sep­a­rated from my ex-​​wife, I miss my step­daugther Megan. I love her so much. (Daddy loves you, sweet­heart.) But another loss is some­how affect­ing me more, par­tic­u­larly at this time of the year. And of late, it seems to weigh heav­ily on my mind.

This one loss in par­tic­u­lar is my “baby.” You see, my ex-​​wife and I used to have two dogs. She kept both of them when we sep­a­rated, and I haven’t seen them in close to eight months. One is Tia, a Shih-​​Tzu whose my ex-wife’s favorite.

But the other is my baby, Sacha. You can see her pic­ture at the top of this blog, with Tia in the back­ground. (While Sacha loved the cam­era, Tia was always shutter-​​shy.)

I remem­ber the day I got Sacha from the pet store when she was only a few weeks old. She’s a Lhaso Apso who often sat by my side as I worked on copy, and slept with me in bed and com­forted me dur­ing many lonely nights. And I miss her so much.

Thanfully, how­ever, my fiancée Sylvie (and now I) have eight — yes, eight! — cats. Oscar, Dusty, Tip­pers, Nefer­titi (or “Titi” for short), Star­dust, Neige (french for “Snow”), Tiny and Puffy.

Yes, I do have a lot to be thank­ful for indeed.

Dur­ing this time of reflec­tion, grat­i­tude and res­o­lu­tion, I hope you take some time to see the many bless­ings in your life. As every­t­ing is a les­son. Every­thing. From the peo­ple who harm you… to the peo­ple who charm you. From the events that hurt you… to the events that heal you. From the losses for you which you bereave… to the gains that make you believe.

My only wish is that you, too, learn from the lessons in your life. Or at least look at every­thing as lessons. May you not only be as blessed as I am but also have the courage and wis­dom to see them that way.

Have a peace­ful, happy and pros­per­ous 2006.

About the Author

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