How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and, keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to know what really matters most.
- Stephen Covey, author and speaker

This is a supremely important thought. I spent so much of my life in the past worrying about inconsequential things and losing sight of what was truly important. It is really only in the last few years that I have narrowed my life’s focus and found those things which are truly important to me.

Relationships have become far more important to me since I stopped trying to avoid people and started trying to connect to them. I may have few true friends, but those friends have stuck with me over the years. My romantic life, while recently changing, was stable for more than three years prior to this Christmas. I think I am officially a serial monogamist…I engage in monogamous relationships which last years and then move on when the relationship no longer works for either of us. I have a lot of trouble letting go of people when I have let them into my life, so I tend to stay in relationships longer than might be healthy.

There are many things in my life I deem “deeply important.” My career, my family, my friends…they are all foci of my time and dedication. I no longer deem destructive people and their actions as important to my life, though admittedly I spent years dealing with that behavior. I no longer deem other’s opinions as important to me as I have found peace with myself and know I am not the evil witch others have portrayed me as out of fear or anger or loss.

In the end it is a waste of my time and energy to deal with negativity and so I will no longer do so. I have made peace with myself and my Divine influence and can only hope others are able to do the same.