We are often told to have a dream or goal to aim for. It may take us many years or nearly a life time to achieve.

Many of you may know my dream was to have a bookshop that sold a range of other items. I was in my late 40s till final achieved that dream. For 14 years I was grateful of living above my shop.

What people don’t tell you is how you cope when your dream is shattered or broken. For me it involved my shop and home being destroyed by raging bushfires on NYE 2019.

I will just write a little about my immediate response and then focus on how I coped as I want to encourage Moodscopers to share the stories when their dream they had worked hard for did not work out.

Until I saw my shop and home for myself I could not believe it. I later saw myself on the news and I wondered who the old, dishevelled woman was until I realised it was me.

It was  so very hard that I just left my body and floated above looking down at this poor woman who had lost so much and watched her dream shop reduced to smoking embers.

So how does one cope when everything they have worked hard for does not exist, or their loved one has died, or for many reasons from ill health to natural disasters?

Three years later I don’t think I am coping or even surviving but just plodding along. At first, I was angry at the government for not protecting us against the fires. I was also angry at everyone whose houses were saved or untouched. The anger would not bring back my shop.

Everyone told me  I was lucky to be alive but I didn’t feel lucky.

I threw myself into volunteer work as a distraction. I wrote daily, I started writing a regular blog and started writing my fire story. I ended with a page of possible book titles. I feel that people just expect people to just move on with life after their dreams have disappeared. Life is different and I am grateful I had my dream shop for as long as I did.

This is my story but I know many reading this have had their dreams ruined or broken. I would like to hear how you faced the reality of your loss. Most people have some difficult times in their lives. What helped you get through the challenging times?

Leah 

A Moodscope member