"People come into your life for a Reason, a Season, or a Lifetime."

I've spent my whole life wondering what my "purpose" was.  Last night we had our Thanksgiving meal with our family. Our tradition with the kids is to go around the table with each person giving thanks for one thing. It's at that moment, when it was my turn to talk, I realized this purpose!

For the past 21 years, but especially over the past 4 years, I've been the shoulder to cry on for many, many people, including friends, family, acquaintances, and total strangers. I've had to be the one with open ears, anytime of the day or night, when someone needed to talk, because they had nobody else to listen. I've offered advice when they needed it and had to help them see things differently in order to move forward. I'm a very straight-forward kind of person, and not everyone likes to hear things "as a matter of fact", but sometimes it's for their own good, without even realizing it.  Before the age of 20, I could barely speak a word out loud cause I was so shy. Somehow I found the strength to get over my shyness and found it so easy to talk to anyone, to the point where when I knew if someone was going through a difficult time, without them even saying it, I would go up to them and somehow manage to get them to talk until they talked about their problems, and they'd feel good once again. Wow, I've really come along way. (lol).

Some people still remain in my life, while others, was only for a short time. I spent alot of time thinking about this and wishing I was lucky enough to have people in my life who cared as much as I did. But you know, through it all, I am starting to realize that the listening and the sharing,  has helped me build my own solid emotional foundation and helped me to deal with, and get through some of my  problems on my own.

So, this Thanksgiving, I am Thankful to be given this gift. I know what it's like when you are going through Hell, and you feel like there is no way to get through it, and sometimes all it takes is to talk to someone and it can help you to reason again, see things differently, and move forward. I'm thankful I can be there for others when they need it most.

xoxo