It is not long after I start my divorce that things get even more complicated and I am feeling a mixture of fear and hope.

I hear a knock at the door.

It is my friend. I will call her, “Rosalita.”

In she walks, hands dripping with friendship filled gifts to ease my pain.

I snatch one thing from the typically generous and overflowing “Rosalita” gift bag. I place it on my kitchen bar top. I stare at the black, wooden sign with white infused writing.

“You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice.”

I do not feel strong.

I leave it perched there as my mantra. A wooden nod to my current life predicament.

Somehow, as I walk into my kitchen each day, it becomes believable.

I AM strong. I HAVE no choice.

It is months later and I am talking with a friend who tells me not to forget to aim high for what I deserve.

“Thank you for saying that,” I respond back. “Divorce has in many ways undermined my sense of self and in other ways restored it.”

This makes me reflect on “Rosalita’s” sign.

I switch momentarily to my e-mail. I open a few before I get to one from a friend who has just learned of my divorce who tells me I am in their prayers. In the closing line I spy a phrase that I say frequently at the beginning of my divorce and have now lost sight of.

“Remember……There is always a silver lining.”

I google the origin of “Rosalita’s” sign. It is a quote from Bob Marley.

I scroll down a few more quotes to another that catches my attention.

“Just because you are happy it does not mean that the day is perfect but that you have looked beyond its imperfections.”
It seems Bob Marley chose to believe in the “Silver Linings” of life as well.

It turns out I am stronger than I think I am……………Silver Lining