Life After Marriage Ends

By Janelle R. Woods

Life after Marriage Ends offers a mix of advice, information, spirituality, and insight into the life of its sixty-one-year-old author as she learns all the things that eluded her in her first forty years of life. She is writing from the aspect of being a student of life, and it never ceases to amaze her how much more there is to learn. It is compiled in AZ format for quick reference to various aspects. Janelle hopes that there may be some area of her book that resonates with you and that you might learn from. She has enjoyed writing this book and revisiting the many books that have taught her more about human naturethe fragility, the strengths, the disappointments, and the highs. May God bless you all on your lifes journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Feb 26, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493134854

Janelle R. Woods

Author Biography coming up soon

Book preview

Chapter One

Ageing and Acceptance

You know the best thing about ageing, is the knowledge we learn along the way. Every day I guarantee we learn something new, maybe many things new, and I’m very grateful for that. As a young person and through my married years, I look back and realize just how naïve I was. My mother used to say to me that I was so unobservant and she was totally right. Even today, although I have come a zillion miles from those days, I would still put myself in the lower fifty per cent of the observation chart. While in some ways, this can be a good thing and make life simpler, it can also mean we miss out on a lot.

My belief is that reading people and having astute intuition is probably more important than observation. But getting back to ageing, I’ve become kinder to myself, less critical, and I’ve learnt to treat myself as I would a best friend. It’s not an easy thing to do as I think life is so competitive from the time we start kindergarten. It’s something I have to remind myself of on a day to day basis. We also regain our freedom as we age. I’ve had dear girlfriends leave this world way too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with ageing.

Who’s business is it if I choose to read in the daytime or take a quick nap in the afternoon, or sleep till after 9am or dance with myself to the wonderful 60’s music of my teenage years. I no longer worry about what I look like in a bathing suit, as long as I get to swim and float and cool off at my leisure. My memory is not as good as it once was, but I’m not going to lose sleep over that because I know my friend’s memories are exactly the same, and the best part is being able to share our funny stories about them. Those that don’t admit it or share the funny side, I figure are in denial or else terribly worried that it’s only their problem.

My heart has been broken over the years, like many others. How can our hearts not break, when we lose a loved one, or a child suffers or even when our own or someone’s beloved pet dies? But broken hearts are what give us strength, understanding and compassion. It may take ten or fifteen years for the pain of loss to ease, but in that process, we are learning a lot about ourselves. In fact, I believe that I have done the bulk of my learning in the last 13 years.

As my marriage was disintegrating, I had piles of books next to the bed and I read as much as I could get my hands on, mostly about the human psyche, Spirituality and living values. Some of my favourites have been A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson, Forgiveness and Other Acts of Love by Stephanie Dowrick, You Can Heal your Life by Louise Hay, The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, The Happiness Trap by Dr Russ Harris, Men, Women and Relationships by John Gray, Life Strategies by Dr Phillip McGraw and The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott Peck. These are all wonderful books with a wealth of knowledge in them and it’s easy to read them, but the hardest thing to do is to put all this knowledge into practice. The main areas I am working on are being more positive, communicating openly and honestly, letting go of my fears (they are many), meditation, and accepting myself just the way I am. None of these, I might add, are easy to execute. They take conscious effort and work. I am a work in progress in other words. Let’s face it, we are all works in progress till the day we depart this earth.

Chapter Two

Beauty

The problem was I had no time to feel the beauty of life. The beauty of simple everyday things,