What I have Learned Today...

What I have learned today is something that I already knew deep down inside.  What I learned today is that I am the only person who can deem my value and worth.  If I deem myself valuable and of worth, I am just that.  What I have learned today is that only I can determine what success means.  Success is personal.  Success is what you set out to accomplish—whether that was cleaning off your desk or curing cancer.  What I have learned today is that if my goal were to cure cancer and I did not, I am still successful—merely because I had the courage to try because along the way, I would have affected people’s lives.  Today someone of no importance called me a “remarkable failure”.  It was intended to be hurtful and spiteful—and it was.  Today I had the common sense and grace to not simply cold cock the wretched old bi*ch but to smile at her and ask how her children were doing.  If her children were a reflection of her successes this world is in very deep trouble.  I did not intend it to be hurtful.  I merely intended it as a redirection.  When she left and drove off in her SUV to her home I realized that although from a financial standpoint I could be deemed a “failure” from a business standpoint.  But from a personal standpoint, I can look fondly and with extreme pride on the dogs I have helped and conversely their owners by improving their relationship, their home life, and even their well being through nutrition and resources they had no idea existed.  I can look to the dogs that have passed through my life over the past 6 years and I know that none of them would have ever deemed me a failure.  What I have learned today is that the people that I have around me TODAY are the people that love me unconditionally and are good for my soul.  These people are my family and friends and they make me a better person than I could ever be on my own.  What I have learned today is that if I die tomorrow, I have done well and no one, but no one can take that from me.  So for those that have gone out of their way to hurt me, and those that will cross my path in the future with ill intent, you can’t take away what I have already learned and embraced.  Move onward, and I pray you find peace one day.