On this Thanksgiving Day, it’s easy to give thanks for all the good stuff that’s going on in your life – yes, even in 2020! But can you also give thanks for the rough times you’ve had? Can you give thanks for all the heartache and disappointment you’ve endured – all of the people in your past who hurt or betrayed you?

It may seem like an odd question to ask, but it’s in those dark days of our life that we get to decide about the trajectory of our lives, to pivot, to see what we’re made of; to demand something new for ourselves. When you know what you don’t want, you know what you do want. And how amazing is that?

When I look back on the many relationships I’ve had – the two marriages; two divorces, the live-in lovers; and all the other men I came to rendezvous with – those men taught me so much about myself.

Of course, I didn’t see it that way at the time, but in hindsight, I can appreciate that all of those relationships have been a catalyst for my journey to discover the true ME.

Because with every one of those relationships another layer would peel away – another layer of illusion – another layer of what was imprisoning me; another layer of what was not true about me.

And so, on this Thanksgiving Day, I give thanks to all of those wonderful men in my life – the ones who cherished and loved me; the one’s who cheated and lied to me; the ones who pressured and gaslighted me.

Because all of it has led me to be on this spiritual and emotional journey - a journey to discover the powerful woman that I am – the powerful woman who was there all along waiting for me to catch up.

It has surely been a right of passage. And I give thanks to all of them.