I wrote in a journal entry last year, “I’m moving forward but I’m still just where I am right now.” I wanted to be further down the path towards wholeness and healing, but I found myself in the familiar, yet frustrating place of feeling dissatisfied with my progress. “Maybe tomorrow it will feel better.” “Maybe in a month I won’t be crying so much.” “Maybe next year I’ll have it all together.” Although it didn’t Read more…
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Romans 8:37 Shortly after I separated from my ex-husband, I began recognizing places all over town that made me overwhelmingly sad; too sad to ever think of revisiting them. Everywhere I turned, I saw another restaurant, park, or theatre that reminded me of the life I had, and the love (I thought) we shared. Once I discovered his infidelity, these Read more…
Dear Reclaiming Buddies, I owe you an apology… I failed drastically at blogging in February. I’ve been utilizing the Ellie’s Emergency Anti-Feeling Crappy About Herself Protocol quite a lot these days. Has it always been a success? No, but I’m growing in my own personal strength and resilience and that’s pretty awesome. Anyway… Big steps are being taken to Reclaim my life and build the Reclaiming community. I’m blown away at how many of you Read more…
Someone once told me, “You can’t control what happens to you; you can only control your response.” With everything I’ve been through, most people would expect me to be bitter and resentful towards my ex-husband and even cynical about the idea of a fulfilling relationship in the future. This is not the way I chose to live. I am not a victim. A few people have commented or even reached out to me recently to Read more…
Feeling generally terrible about myself has been a real hurdle in healing from my divorce. For me, every crappy feeling is rooted in a lie of some sort. My strategy in facing the crap is to identify the lie and replace it with truth. Lies circulate like a nauseating merry-go-round: “you’re ugly,” “you’ll never be happy again,” “you deserved it,” “you weren’t good enough for him.” As these lies would spin faster and faster in Read more…
“Divorce is not in my vocabulary.” This was my motto before the you-know-what-hit the proverbial fan in my marriage. More than a year ago, I found out my husband of 5 ½ years was having an affair and although I was desperate for restoration with him, that’s not my story. It wasn’t until I was well into the legal process that I could actually say the dreaded “D-word.” Divorce was literally not in my vocabulary. Read more…
Choosing your Reclaiming buddies can make or break your Reclaiming experience. When I set out to Reclaim someplace or something, I had a few go-to friends who would uplift me and still allow me to express the range of my emotions. Remember, the goal of Reclaiming: To face the pain of my past To create a new and positive association The job of my Reclaiming buddies was not to distract me from my pain or Read more…
The hashtag #Reclamation2k17 has been plastered on nearly all my social media posts this year. Many have said to me “I love your ‘Reclaiming’ thing on Facebook but I’m not sure what it means.” Soon after I discovered my ex-husband’s affair, I began facing the pain of the betrayal intentionally. I called that process “Reclaiming.” Here’s my definition: Reclaiming (v): Identifying a fearful, painful internal reaction to a place or a thing that holds a Read more…