I have no desire to attend the church where I have been a member for the past 8 years. Sam's parents are3 entrenched in that church. So, I have spent the past 2 weeks trying out the local Universalist Unitarian church. I tend to be rather religiously liberal to begin with (something I had to be careful about, in even the Episcopal church.)

Today, I met a married couple within a few years of my age, and another fellow, also within a few years of my age, whom I assume is also married, given that he wears a wedding band and mentioned his wife, by title, once during our conversation.

We struck up a conversation and discovered that the 4 of us have some very similar views about not only our spirituality, but about politics, philosophy, education and some other topics. So we all exchanged phone numbers and decided to get together as a group, either some night this week, or during next weekend, for dinner and some getting to know eachother.

It felt good to be developing a circle of friends of my own again. These are people that didn't know the Pre-stroke Lydia, so there will no expectations that I suddenly (or even over time) become the person I was prior to my stroke. These people are meeting the me I am now and have been very accepting of not only me, but also of Monster.

I was even told, by another member of the church, today, that people really enjoy having both of us there and it is wonderful that he can be such an ambassador of his breed. That made me feel very good and genuinely welcome.

So there are a couple of discussion groups that take place at this church that I am thinking about joining. One is Bible study for the "skeptic," meaning that there is a lot of open discussion about biblical text and message, and that research and study of the social and political climate of the time when the works were3 created is taking into account along with the religious climate. Sounds like a discussion I will greatly enjoy.

Anyhow, all of this is, I think, me moving forward again, and maybe even gathering a little momentum. I feel good about that. It even gives me a little bit of confidence in myself, both as a stroke survivor, and as someone who is going through the end of a marriage.

I'm starting to feel like I really will be ok again, like I'm beginning to rediscover my own strength and my own voice. That is a very good and welcome feeling.