Yowza how time flies! I've been thinking about the title phrase for a looooooong time now. I won't lie - it's been rough figuring out how to keep all my landscape clients happy, build this jewelry business, play office assistant/accountant for my husband's construction business and not lose my mind.
(Side note - I may have lost said mind at least temporarily at times)
What it all boils down to is the classic saying "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger". I would add however, that if you get stronger and it doesn't kill you, you should get smarter too.
I got smarter about saying NO. No is also not a four-letter-word, although a lot of us treat it that way. I should have said NO much more often this summer and much sooner; instead I held on to that tragic belief that I could do it all. And I failed a time or two.
This situationally-induced and self-fulfilling summer of adversity was all mine. I brought it upon myself, stayed in it for way too long and bitched/moaned for short periods of time. In between the bouts of bitching, I would (again) realize that these are growing pains. Learning opportunities. Not God inflicting his wrath upon me (I'm certain he has better things to do), but simply a chance to do better.
And so, this fall, older and wiser than I was this summer, I dive headlong into tackling a Christmas retail show in Vegas.
Maybe I didn't learn a damn thing at all. Or maybe I just thrive on adversity.