I was on my way to a post by Cath Lawson I read yesterday. I Googled her name to get there. The post that came up first had a great headline.
Sometimes You Need to Hit Rock Bottom
I’ll wait while you read it.
I know few things about hitting rock bottom. Haven’t been there recently. Don’t plan to go there again ever, but I’m sure glad I made the trip. I was just turning thirty . . .
Losing everything isn’t the worst thing. It was the best thing that happened to me. With all of the “stuff” gone, I was left with me. That made it easy to see just who I was and who I was not. Even better than that, I learned a secret. People liked being around that person — broke, flaws, and all. Losing everything got me to build a new foundation on what I believed to replace the one I had built on other people’s voices. Why not? What were they going to do? Take all of my money? I had none.
I don’t wish you ever lose what you need to make your world function. But I do wish you the joy of security based in who you are not in what you own. It’s a new way of belonging. Rock bottom means that you’re standing on stable ground.
When we belong, we can make things better from just being a part.
We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss