I can’t be sure what made it happen. No single thing in my life right now really stands out as being a huge obvious catalyst to what happened to me today.

Maybe it started when I read Kim’s post about overcoming resentment. Maybe it’s all the Imogen Heap I’ve been listening to. Maybe my kids’ starting school triggered some thought. Maybe my failure at any form of dating is the cause. Perhaps all my recent social interactions from Twitter and Facebook have caused me to reevaluate things. Perhaps meeting truly happy people has been helpful. I have no idea. Maybe it’s a little bit of everything.

Three years ago, my wife started cheating on me. For the next two and half years she lied and continued to cheat on me, and continued to see the same guy, culminating in our bitter divorce in January of 2008. She immediately moved in with her boyfriend - everything was so abrupt that it felt like having my heart ripped out of my chest. Things were made worse by his attempts at ingratiating himself into my kids’ lives by buying them all kinds of toys and things.

(more…)