211214 Sentinel, Nothing Is All Bad

We can learn something every time things go bad in our lives.

This concept is perhaps an odd thing to contemplate, especially for me.

During my early years in the navy, being a non-rated petty officer I did my time working the galley. It was a 94 day shit show. It did however show me that the rest of my enlistment was going to be better and it was dramatically better.

In my years of marriage to Joyce, there were many times when we were broke. When Annie was born, my spending up to that point had us broke and in debt. What money we had for food went to keeping Annie eating what was best for an infant, while we lived on hot dogs, french fries and popcorn. At times we couldn’t afford the hot dogs. That taught me to improve my money management.

My first evaluation on a navy flight crew was horrible. My attitude was terrible and my quarterly marks showed that. That was a wakeup call for me. From that point on I never had bad marks for the rest of my 11 years in the navy.

Joyce’s passing was the worst time in my life. I was mired in grief, but in the last 3 months I have learned a lot about myself. My life is still worth living. The universe is good and good to me. People all suffer grief in some way, but people for the most part are good. There are always bad actors and they teach the rest of us to be better in our life. I have found that I can cook, clean and take care of myself. If I could still have Joyce with me I would love that, but I can’t so I have to be the best person I can be.