I guess I should do what everyone else does and go on some depression medication. I should stay in my house and look at old pictures and think about all the good times my wife and I had. I should start to feel sorry for myself because after all, I am the victim here. She left me. Oh, and the big one. I am 41 years old. Who is going to want me with 3 kids? I have too much baggage.

                The way I see it, I have two choices. I am at a fork in the road. Down one road is depression sadness and anger. That way is the easy road. It is easy to feel angry. I can work up anger like no one I know. It is dark and has a lot of people I know calling me down that path. It almost feels comforting. The other path seems mysterious. I can’t quite see what is up ahead. I think I can see a friend or two, way up the path. If I look hard enough, I can see people smiling. The air seems fresh. I take a whiff of it and I can feel a tingling in the back of my throat.  It is kind of scary, but comforting.

                Since I have never been one to take the normal path, I take the bright path. Ok, let’s back out of the parables for a moment. What I did, was take some advice from one of my favorite movies; “Shawshank Redemption” Andy Dufresne says “Get Busy living, or get busy dying” Watch it here.  It is too easy to feel bad for yourself and give up. I have done it a time or two. At first, it feels good to be angry and depressed. You keep feeding the anger and sadness until you make it to depression. Once you get there, it is hard to dig yourself out.

I can imagine you are all asking the same question. “What Happened?” Without getting into details, because this is not the point I am trying to make, she left. The blame was equally shared here. I know, you are looking for the juicy details, but you are not going to get them. What I will say is that I could have easily shrunk into depression. Sometimes I will admit. When this house is empty and the kids are not here, I can feel it creeping in. I immediately start to think. I try to work through my feelings and understand why those thoughts are bouncing around in my head. Then I use the diversion technique. I start to flood my mind with good thoughts. That usually works. My second line of defense is to get physical. I go for a walk and notice the simple things, or a bike ride, or I do a hard workout. If that does not work I will listen to one of my DVD’s like Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, or maybe Tony Robbins. Doing this gets the positive vibe flowing.

It all comes down to a choice. You are the one that makes it. This works for any situation in life. You can “Get busy living or get busy dying”