Trust in the Good Times

Well Chump Lady is having a good day here. As much as I try and keep the site gender and orientation neutral, today I’ll let my political bias slip — I’m so glad Obama got re-elected. But more than that? I’m glad the voting public repudiated the wing nuts (i.e., you can’t get pregnant from rape) and elected a scad of women to the Senate. Thank you JESUS!

But the last couple of days have been like crazy good days personally too. So much to be thankful for. We’ve got our health over here, business is good, the kids are all doing well. I got a money order in the mail for $100 the other day from my son’s dead beat dad. (Okay, he still hasn’t paid child support this month, owes me another round of travel costs, and hundreds in medical expenses from years back — but I’ll TAKE IT.) I mean, Saturn must be aligned with Mars in the seventh house of WTF? for my ex to send money he owes me without legal arm twisting.

And then yesterday I got word that HuffPo has bestowed the honorific of HuffPo blogger on me, accepted another piece, and gave me super power access to the system to post my stuff ! (With an editorial nod from them first of course, but still!)

All very exciting.

So, of course, what does all this have to do with infidelity?

I lost my flinch reflex.

You know the one — I’m sure you have it too — where any time there is good news you’re waiting for the anvil to drop on your head. Surely, no good deed will go unpunished. Where’s the sucker punch? I know you’re out there sucker punch. I’m waiting for you!

Gone.

Look, it’s not that I’m so delusional or naive that I don’t think Bad Things can happen — it’s just that I’m finally at a place where I can live in the now and savor the peace and good times. And one thing surviving crap like infidelity does is it forges a tougher self. I feel pretty confident that I can handle what the universe throws at me. (Not that I’m challenging you, Universe. Please skip over me for awhile, thank you.)

When you go through the crucible of betrayal, it’s easy to get in a long funk of pessimism. Everything will suck. Always and forever. Trudge, trudge, trudge.

But keep trudging upwards. At some point you will reach higher elevation, the clouds lift — and the view is fucking spectacular.