A Personal Note

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

Today is my 10th wedding anniversary. As many of you know, I’ve been living apart from my wife because of my job, though she will finally be joining me in South Carolina next month! To top it off, my wife is actually even further away than normal, as she is traveling in Greece as part of her job! (The last big commitment she wanted to live up to before leaving.)

If you had asked me 10 years ago how we would be celebrating this anniversary, I don’t think I would have guessed this in a million chances.

This weekend I am also missing my High School’s 25 year reunion. (Yeah, I’m getting old!) If you had asked me then where I would be living, again, I don’t think South Carolina would have even been a consideration. I don’t think I had even heard of Greenville, so I know I couldn’t have guessed that!

My point? Life’s an adventure. You never really know where you’ll end up, and if you’re open to it, life will surprise you. Ten years ago, I was getting married, something I swore I would never do again. Sometimes, you meet someone who you want to break all your rules for, and once you start breaking those rules, the adventure begins. I haven’t regretted any of the adventure, even the challenges of this past year. In fact, all of the challenges along the way in this adventure have only served to make me a better man, and made our relationship stronger than anything I could have imagined on our wedding day.

Then again, it’s fairly obvious that I simple wasn’t thinking big enough back then. I won’t make that mistake again. Now I know that our adventure may take us anywhere, and we’ll get through it, together. And still, 10 years from now, I hope I’m just as amazed by where life has taken us as I am today!

Similar Posts

  • How Shame Keeps Us Disconnected

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The context for this quote is a handful of stories where someone felt ashamed of an event or something that they’d allowed people to believe about them that wasn’t true. Marisa goes on to talk about how when we have something we won’t discuss, it creates a separation from other people, and that separation can take away from humanness. Our interactions with other people are blocked off. We know we aren’t sharing our whole selves with the people we should be. That block can protect us from potential pain, but it also prevents us from having all the benefits of having close relationships with other humans.

    Doesn’t that sound exactly like growing up keeping our abuse secret?

    We grow up with shame around something that was never our fault. That shame prevents us from fully connecting with other human beings. That lack of connection harms our mental health as adults. We struggle to heal without one of the most powerful tools in our arsenal as human beings, other people. We keep our secrets and hide our shame, meaning we will never know the healing power of being accepted and loved by those who know our whole selves.

  • This is why I do this..

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 1 minute

    I’m sitting in my office crying. Thankfully the door’s shut and there’s no one standing outside knocking at the moment, because if they were, they’d have to figure out just why the hell I’m sitting in my office with tears rolling down my face and I don’t think I could even tell them. This is…

  • |

    Little Over a Year

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 1 minute

    Yes, it’s been a little over a year since I announced the launch of the Survivors Network site. Like most years of my life, this year didn’t exactly go as planned either, and changes in my job caused me to spend less time there, and less time working on my websites in general, as I…

  • Pat LaFontaine’s sweet dream. While

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 1 minute

    Pat LaFontaine’s sweet dream. While you’re all so busy bashing Microsoft, I noticed that they are the corporate partner along with ex-NHL player Pat LaFontaine in trying to equip children’s hospitals with high-tech play rooms. I may not agree with everything they do, but you gotta stop and give them credit for this. I hope…

  • Happy Holidays

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 1 minute

    I know for many survivors this time of year can be difficult and filled with stress as we navigate the treacherous waters that constitute our families, so I just want to take a moment and wish you all well, and hope that we all remember to take care of ourselves!

  • Mental Health and Self-Medicating

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 4 minutes

    I feel like the universe, or someone, something, whatever, is pushing me to pay attention to this subject. Over the last couple of months, I’ve had multiple conversations about addiction, specifically about using drugs or alcohol to self-medicate. The variety of stories that I’ve heard, some first hand, others not, seem to have many things…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

To respond on your own website, enter the URL of your response which should contain a link to this post's permalink URL. Your response will then appear (possibly after moderation) on this page. Want to update or remove your response? Update or delete your post and re-enter your post's URL again. (Find out more about Webmentions.)