"We fall down, but we get up..."

A little more than a year ago, my life was a mess.

I believe that all good writing is personal, but I can't talk about all of the things that brought me to that state; someday perhaps. It was a combination of bad choices and bad luck and, if I were to be honest, more of the former than the latter.

Suffice it to say that there wasn't much going on that I was happy about. My personal and professional life was essentially a mess--finances, too--and in order to make everything right, I needed to get a new job at a time when my industry was shedding workers the way a Siberian husky sheds fur in July, buy a new house at a time when banks wouldn't finance a dime if you showed them a nickel, and sell my house amidst one of the worst real estate markets in history.

I needed more than a do-over--more, even, than a single miracle. I needed three.

I am writing tonight from the second miracle, confident that the third will happen. I say that not to brag or in any way to degrade all that has happened in the past year--the new job, the new house, reconciling my family--but to remind everyone that even amidst the worst times in life, the impossible can happen.

I am not sure what the ultimate goal is with these blog entries, which will come under the heading of 'The Third Miracle,' or even how good I'll be at it. Maybe, if the words cooperate and if I can remember how to string a few sentences together coherently, I'll be able to offer some hope and encouragement to anyone who needs it or lift the spirits of anyone who needs to smile.

Because I'm nothing special. I don't deserve good fortune any more than anyone else. Yet I've been blessed and I know it. And if it can happen to someone as broke down, hurt and dispirited as I was, it can happen to anyone.