Listening to perspectives on success stories, and on wishing to be one... Is reconciling with one's spouse considered a 'success story'? I'm not sure - and i am happy with my H (not the same as before MLC, naturally; but a different happy). It's certainly not the only success story, as so many of you make clear.
To many of my friends and family, a 'success story' for me would have included me snapping my fingers, triumphantly sauntering away from my H and finding a bright-and-shiny someone else ("you can find someone better looking and nicer", is the way my sister put it - as though I should be shopping for nicer produce and pinching the vegetables). They were heartily disappointed that my H and I reconciled ("I guess you just wanted a marriage", my cousin said, her lip slightly curled).
I guess what constitutes a success in our own eyes often reflects what our loved ones wish for us - to get back the person we lost, to make everything better, to prove that we can triumph. And i did fantasize about finding someone who loved me even better, before deciding that the broken-and-reglued love was what I actually wanted. Arguably, the real triumph lies in figuring out what makes us whole, regardless of who else is in our lives (I trust I'd feel this calm, whether alone or reconciled). I still can't get my family to quite see that - that I'm whole now, that I'm strong, that I have learned to bend so I won't ever break again. Oddly enough, my H sees it, and seems to admire that strength; perhaps that's why we're back together now.
"You have a right to action, not to the fruit thereof; shoot your arrow, but do not look to see where it lands." -Bhagavad Gita