Chapter Sixty Six; Dearly beloved. We're gathered here today to get through this thing called Life . . .

I met a friend for lunch the other day and the conversation veered toward our personal lives. Are you dating anyone? Nah, not right now. So, how’s your girlfriend? Oh she’s doing well, has a new job. Awesome! Tell me more about that.

The small talk soon opened a door to something a little deeper and before long I was listening intently to his honesty and sharing my insight and perspective when invited. Mid-conversation he stopped abruptly, shook his head and said, “I can’t believe I am subjecting you to my personal life, so sorry.”

Subjecting?

I tossed aside his analogy and simply stated, “Are you kidding me? Your personal life is your life. What other life is there?”

He paused to contemplate my assessment, smiled back across the table and said, “Yeah, Audra. Yeah. You’re exactly right,” and then offered affirmation by repeating my words, “what other life is there?”

Obviously, this blog is about relationships. Mainly mine. Friendships, my children, my parents, my ex-husband, or any guys (poor souls) who end up on my dating radar (with a high dose of discretion on my part, always). It doesn’t mean I don’t watch the nightly news, I don’t have a job, or that I haven’t noticed that the country’s economy appears to be on the brink of collapsing (Damn, should have kept that cardboard box my refrigerator came in should I lose my house some day). My point is that, yes, I do live in the same world you do. Those things are just as much a part of my reality as anyone else’s, but I’ll let the talking heads spend their time expounding on those elements of life.

I am going to blog about the more important parts of humanity.

The estrogen infused sap that I am would rather seek out the universality of the human experience (fancy way of saying that is what authors, poets, and song writers do) and write about the things that tie this fragmented cloth of humanity together: happiness, heartbreak, love, and loss.

And, well, if I can do that and eek a chuckle out of someone in the process, then high fives all around. I love doing that. I love just writing about life.

All that being said, an anonymous comment appeared on my blog the other day requesting updates on the Divorce Land girls, the women who inspired me to start this blogarama in the first place, the four girls behind the email address attached to Divorce Land: fourgirlsonestory@gmail.com.

Those four girls are: Susie, Julia, Annie, and Sonja. (Five girls if you count me.) We’re all friends, and we all went through a divorce this past year. We honestly were only loosely connected prior to our divorces, but through the process of pain bonding and the circumstance that is serendipity, we found each other, and what a gift it was.

The anonymous poster is right, I haven’t done an update on the DL girls in a while. Mainly out of respect for my friends (although every time they’ve been blog fodder they have loved it, we’re all suckers for our 15 minutes of fame) but also because Divorce Land is coming to a natural end. It’s been quite a year, and our journeys through divorce significant, but not defining. Our futures will not be monuments to our past, but instead hold promising discoveries waiting to be unearthed as we all navigate our second chances, our Act Two.

I promised myself I would continue this blog until December 14th. The one year anniversary of the day my own divorce was final. At that time, I will close this chapter in my life for good, and ending Divorce Land will be a symbolic gesture toward that endeavor.

But until that date, I promise to continue to bring my DL readers along for the ride, give regular updates of the DL girls (look for that update in my next essay!), and continue to allow the world a glimpse into my own journey post-divorce.

In other words, I have a few more months left to devote to blogging about my personal life.

Because after all.

What other life is there?

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If you were born in the 80's you might not get the Prince Reference in the title . . . I highly suggest you listen to the best Prince song ever immediately, "Let's Go Crazy," or risk dying truly unenlightened.