I pulled the rug out from under myself once.  Yanked the band-aid off a situation that seemingly wasn’t there.  
And after a brief, yet painful, moment of sheer awfulness, I FINALLY knew EXACTLY where I stood.
And I didn’t like the end result.  
Not even a little bit.  
Yet after months of guessing and table playing ‘every possible scenario’, one had ultimately presented that hadn’t even crossed my mind.  
And after pulling myself together, and resetting my sights, I realized I was in a much stronger place for having gone ahead and made the call.  
That there was very little guess work left and the answers for going forward much more clear.  
That gathering facts and asking questions outright, monitoring things a different kind of closely and making no assumptions, digging deep and not taking ANYTHING at face value had now gone to a whole new level.
And with one horrible call the pieces had suddenly been placed differently on the game board and I was now in a difficult, yet stronger position to do just that.
But accepting that some things will never change, and having the courage to support changing the things that can is rarely easy.  
And maintaining strength in the wisdom to know the difference almost always comes at a price.  
And I can’t say that I haven’t made the occasional misstep since that incredibly valuable learning lesson.  
But my ability to think clearly and navigate more smoothly has improved ten fold.  And EVERYTHING gets easier with experience.  
So rest easy my friend.  Rest easy in the knowing that big changes are often nothing short of terrifying.
Rest easy in knowing that the first step is almost always the hardest.  
And rest easy in knowing that we cannot become what we NEED to become by remaining what we are …
See you when you get here ❤️

Amy Hege Atwell is the author of 10 Little Rules for Mermaids, available at www.10littlerules.com, on Amazon, on Etsy, and at retail outlets including her shop The Painted Mermaid in Southport, NC.