top of page
My Story
There is a quote that resonates with me:
"If you're searching for the one person that will change your life, take a look in the mirror."
I believe that this is so true for all of us. Life has a way of taking us through many ups and downs and to sometimes very difficult places. There will always be the external circumstances that we cannot control, but what we can control is how we react to them. No it is not always easy. Sometimes very far from it. The path we start out on and think is the right one may not always be where we end up.
There have been life altering, catastrophic changes in my life and the life of my children. Our lives have been turned upside down not just once but twice. Our first loss was the unexpected, tragic death of my husband of 20 years and father of my 3 daughters. Just 7 years later, we would be hit with the most devastating loss that one could ever imagine. My 17 year old youngest daughter Olivia Rose was killed tragically on New Years Day 2022. Nothing can prepare you for something like this. There is also no loss like the loss of a child. It goes against the natural order of life and everything we can truly understand.
It is debilitating and life shattering making one ask the question "Why?" "Why did this happen?" "Why am I here?"
There has to be a reason that Olivia was put on this earth and then taken from this world at such a young age. If I don't believe this then her life meant nothing and that just isn't the case. I tell myself each day when I wake that I have to keep going. I have to keep going for my other children. I have to fulfill my purpose on this earth. I have to keep Olivia's name, her incredible soul and legacy alive.
We ALL have a purpose on this earth. We all have a journey to complete and I believe that when that journey is finished we move on from this earth. I do not believe that we no longer exist. I believe we just move on to a different/higher level of existence.
I believe that we will all find ourselves in the middle of storms in our lives. Sometimes they feel as if we will never come out of them.
It is important to remember that we need to fight.
We need to fight for ourselves.
We need for fight for others.
When we need help we need to seek it.
When we need a break we need to take it.
We need to find a way in this life to keep going. We have to find our "Why".
Whether it's one step or one breath at a time we can prove that we all have the ability to rise up from the deepest depths of despair. It is certainly not easy, but by taking small steps, even when it may be hard to breathe at times, you can find your way out of the darkness.
We will all find where we are meant to be if we have something called faith, hope, the love of others and for others, and in the end the love for ourselves.
Ultimately we need to believe that we all have a purpose and we need to believe that we ARE here for a reason.
Janine the Author
We often hear the cliché “You never think it will happen to you.” I can tell you that when the unimaginable happens those words ring piercingly throughout your whole being. I thought long and hard about my decision to publish my book. You see, this was initially my own personal journal where I poured my heart and emotions onto the pages. It was a way for me to release everything inside me, things I didn’t necessarily want to discuss with anyone else. When I made the decision to put all of this out there as a book, it wasn’t an easy decision.
I would now be letting the world into my very personal life. I would be allowing everyone, both people I knew and strangers alike a front row seat to my very raw, very real, very private moments and tragic events. I decided I would tell my story so that others may see that they are not alone. Life isn’t a Cinderella story where bad things happen and by the end of the story things are perfect. Real life has a lot of in between moments and struggles to try to get to a place of peace. I shared my story so that if one person who reads it can relate to it somehow and realize that they too can come to a place of peace then that is what makes it worth telling. To bring something positive from something so negative is the ultimate reason for sharing my journey. You can find peace and happiness again. If you are given a second chance in life, you take it and hold on tightly because this life is precious. We only get one and we need to live it. We need to not sweat the small stuff. Rock bottom is sadly a dark place where some of us have found or will find ourselves within our lives but that isn’t a place to remain. We need to use those same rocks to build a staircase to climb back out even if it's one rock and one step at a time.
My Reiki Journey
I kept looking to my faith and to the universe for guidance and answers on how I was supposed to move forward. I thankfully learned through many difficult lessons that ultimately, we all have the strength within us, even on days that seem very dark and the last thing we feel is strong. We have to have faith in ourselves and in the universe’s plan for us. Through Reiki I have found a much higher level of peace. I have learned to release the negative energy that can be debilitating to us all both physically and mentally and channel positive energy and mindset. By surrounding ourselves with positive energy, we can create a peaceful path for our lives. What you feel on the inside will manifest on the outside.
bottom of page