Lucy March

458: ALNM, Falling in Love With Tobias

Oh, and vaguely related to the stuff you’re writing, I stumbled across this series of photos done to depict fairy tale women in a modern world (un)happily ever after. Kind of dark, but so well done. I think my favorite is Jasmine.

http://www.fallenprincesses.com/

–Sierra (Bonny Betty)

I’ve seen these before, but if you guys haven’t, you need to check them out. Very cool, if a little dark and sad.

459: There’s No Such Thing as an Original Divorce

Reading these, I’m bouncing between “Oh, My God!” and “Thank God”. Right now, all I know for sure is that I LOVE EVERYBETTY! You are all insightful and wonderful and always make me feel more human and less flawed.

–marly

That’s how I felt. Reading through all those comments about marriage and divorce and perceptions about what you are and are not good at… they were all really brilliant. I can’t even pick out a few that stand out – there’s so much great stuff there. If you haven’t had a chance to read the comments from that one, check them out now. Brilliant.

460: Advice

In my case, it’s more like I’m this large structure taking up my entire life boat. I can row, repair, steer, and navigate all on my own. And I’m not going to be turning those duties over or sharing them with anyone else anytime soon. Now, I’m sure there are couples who can go through life happy as can be in side-by-side life boats, but for a marriage to work, you really need to both be in the same boat.

My boat is a one-seater.

–Terrio/Survivor Betty

I don’t think I got to this in the comments, but I really appreciated this thought. I feel the same way.

There’s another blogger I read who refers to unasked-for advice as “assvice”, and this makes me laugh every time I see it. I don’t know if she coined the term, but I love it.

–Erin (Bookworm Betty)

I love it, too, Erin!

For a happy 10 minutes on putting relationships in perspective, highly recommend googling “Madea Relationship Advice” on You tube. It’s brightened my day immeasurably!

–Piper

Okay, anyone who didn’t do this – go do it NOW. I’d embed it here if I could get that function to work, but I can’t, so GO. And thanks for the heads up, Piper!

461: Cranky

When my mom went back to school and was studying engineering with three kids running around the house, she posted a sign on her bedroom door – “Do not enter unless bleeding or unconscious.” Perhaps something like that would be useful for when you’re really needing to focus?

–Sierra (Bonny Betty)

LOL, I love this, and all the variations of “bleeding or on fire.” That’s the standard we hold here, and I know one of these days one of the kids is going to light their sleeve on fire, come in and say, “There! I’m on fire! Now can I have an Oreo?!?”

462: Thank You, Dr. Susan

Generally what I’ve noticed is that if you ask for something like a character trait – the universe sends you situations that are designed to help you develop and grow into that characteristic.

So if you ask for peace, the Universe facilitates conflict into your life so that you learn to face the conflict and create peace from within.

–surething

I like this. Good to keep in mind… also, be careful what you wish for!

463: This Was Never Not Going to Happen

Yeah, the whole predestination/free will tightrope just confuses the hell out of everybody, doesn’t it? The best I’ve got to say on it is that I think some things are one and some things are the other. Some stops of the train aren’t optional, other times you could hop off or on as you want.

–Jennifer R

My thoughts exactly, Jennifer. Thanks for articulating them so nicely.

I like to think that there is a shining light of truth and wellness in each of our lives and it is our individual choice whether or not to follow it.

–Karen J

Nicely put, Karen.

I think when I walked away this morning from the blog I asked the Universe if this theory was true. Not in a direct kind of way, but one of those inside questions you ask yourself. See about five years ago I threw my sister off the lifeboat. The story is long and not really important, but it hurt a lot and I love my sister though the person I threw off wasn’t really my sister. My father has been urging me to talk to her because she was her old self again. I love my father, but he is not the best judge of his children. He loves us unconditionally. Bless him. So with trepidation I talked to her today. And she was fine. She was ok again. I was never not supposed to have my sister back.

–Melissa Blue

Mel, I saw this and cried, it was so touching. I’m so glad you got back in touch with your sister, and thanks for sharing that story with us. So happy for you.