Your Stories – Love Yourself And Never Give Up! By JoAnne Silvia

Another inspiring and beautiful love story by one of the amazing bloggers and writers I encounter every day in this WordPress world. Thank you so much, JoAnne, for sharing your story. For all of you interested, JoAnne also wrote a book about her story and you will be able to find more information about it on her blog.

If you have a beautiful love story which you would like to share, please don’t hesitate and email it to me!

After twenty years of marriage and two extraordinary kids, an unexpected divorce brought me to my knees. I had no idea how vulnerable I was, or I would not have stayed in that sick rebound relationship for more than a day. Instead it was a year of insanity.  Then there were three years with Mr. Not Quite Right. I was making progress, but getting tired of the stress of trying to force something that didn’t fit.

So for five years, I remained celibate- not necessarily by choice- as I vacillated between trying to be cynical about men, and wanting a partner. I went to community events where men with similar interests would be. Why were there no viable nibbles on my line? Nobody even close to compatible surfaced.

Maybe I was supposed to be single. I thought of all the freedom and accomplishments being single allowed. I worked on acceptance and focused on working on me: discovering my likes and dislikes, my purpose in life, friends, family, God, dogs- all the loyal people and passions that had been there all along. Things I could count on. I learned to love myself, unconditionally.

Then, in 2011, I got a Facebook message from my high school sweetheart, my first love. We’d dated from the fall of 1971 until the end of the 1972 school year. At 16 years old, I was devastated when he told me his family was moving back to Connecticut. I wrote four letters. He wrote me back twice.

Then, thirty-nine years later, my soulmate finally got back to me when the time was right, when we had learned the lessons we needed to learn to be ready to be together again. The details will be in our memoir, currently titled Perfect Timing: Lessons in Love, Faith and Perseverance.

The Lessons:

Love Yourself.
Never Give Up.
God Has a Plan.