I’m Cinderella, From Rags to Riches by Lori J Loesch

If you really must know, and I feel I must tell you, I am the epitome of what a cinderella looks like. An innocent child, through no doing of her own, is pushed down and kept down by her stepparent and stepfamily. As a child, I felt frustration over the way Cinderella was treated. How dare they treat a person with such cruel disregard? Why did she accept it? Why didn’t she tell her daddy? Why, indeed. I could have been asking myself the very same questions. But I wasn’t. I am a strong person. Although, all of my life, I was made to believe that I was weak. I have come through fan upbringing that was deplorable. Deplorable = Unfortunate, shockingly bad, horrible. That is the description of my childhood and young adulthood. It is a wonder I am alive. Many girls that were raised the way I was raised aren’t alive today. I am alive because of the trust, faith, and belief I have always had in God. I am a testimony to the power of what God can do. From a very early age I believed in God and talked to Him. From an early age, I had a friendship with God. Maybe that’s why I view Him in the way that I do. I can remember praying… talking to God when I lived at a rented house in a small town. That’s when I first reported, the horrible thing my “daddy” made me do, to my mom. He was my step dad. I was in Kindergarten/first grade. We moved after second grade. As the story progresses, Cinderella leaves her abusive, pauper, upbringing and finds true love and fortune. Such also, is my life. Now don’t hate me. It took a long time to get here, and too much pain and sacrifice by the very ones I love the most, my husband and children. The pain and sacrifice never stops. Even as I sit here at age 51, we are still sacrificing and feeling the pain from what a horrible man did to me. I want my kids to go onward to start new traditions, and be the moral fabric for their families, that was missing in my upbringing. As I sit here today, and I’m a writer, so I can make sitting here sound as wonderful as I please, but I’ll be honest. It depends which lens I look through, to view my life. The bright lens or the darker lens. But as I sit here, in this bright, sunlit, breakfast nook…writing my blog, watching the birds outside the window, I can say that I feel truly blessed! Praise be to God! Today at this moment, I have everything! I am in need of nothing. Life is relevant to where our mind says it is. If our brain says we are rich, then we feel rich, no matter if we have little. If our brain tells us we are poor, we feel poor, no matter how much we have. A pauper can feel like a millionaire, and a multi millionaire can feel like a pauper, if his brain so tells him. My brain is a very powerful thing, I posses. That is if I train it to be powerful in a positive way. Which brings me to my question, why then, is it easier to think negatively and more difficult to think positively? It is for me and I assume many others, or there wouldn’t be so many self help/improvement books. I can honestly say that I am blessed. I live in the country, outside my window is a world where wildlife meander about, eating as they go. This morning I saw two male turkeys outside my breakfast nook window! The most amazing thing happened…The one male put up his tail and fanned it, while he fluffed his feathers on his entire body! His head and face were the brightest white and teal color. His beard, when he bent over to peck at the seed, touched the ground! I want to say he’s a fifty pounder! My husband says more like twenty-five, maybe thirty, then he adds, “He is a BIG turkey!”. Then my son wondered out loud, why the other turkey wasn’t fanning his tail. To our amazement, he put his fan tail out while the other male had his tail in the “mating” position! What a beautiful sight first thing in the morning! I couldn’t pull myself away from the window. Oh, did I mention that the “Tom” turkey’s had twelve hens in their harem? Twelve hens and two Tom’s! Now this is country living at it’s finest! My life is far from perfect, but it’s a far cry from where I began. I can look at my glass as half full, thanks to the forgivingness of God, and the way he works in my life. I am always amazed at the things he does for me and my family.

Tags: blessed, childhood, faith, sexual abuse, trust God forgivingness