Twenty-eight years ago, I had just finished my doctorate in dentistry and even passed my Boards. This had been a major accomplishment against all odds, because I was also a wife and Mother of two small children. No one thought I would make it. I was exhausted and needed a break. And told my husband that I needed a vacation alone. He responded by giving me a black eye. After that we were separated and I thought how would I make my way in my career. I had a tough choice and thought that going into the Army Dental corps would be a good one. So I did and left the children with my husband for the month that I would have to go for officer training at Fort Sam Houston.

Then I learned the sad truth that my husband would use the children as a way of torturing me and refused to send the children to be with me. When I finally received an honorable discharge after my few years of service, I was a mental wreck. I returned home and was even then not able to see my kids regularly. I turned to spirituality and joined the Hare krsna movement and found so much solace there. but I was still emotionally distraught about my kids and thought I might do something destructive, so I left for the West Coast, because he Courts had turned against me, or so I thought. I would only be able to visit my children once a year. From the West coast, where I was living in an ashram, I went to India, where I met my spritiual teacher and was initiated. I returned to south Florida and helped to open an ashram.

By now my ex-husband was really tired of the kids and sent them to live with me. They're still with me and their father hardly has a thing to do with them. Last week I heard that his own Mother was thankful that I have been assisting them and their children for the past twenty years and is actually ashamed of her own son's lack of parenting (he is also a dentist.

So, what I found out is that we all have karmic lessons and we all have a different paths to follow. I would never in a million years have thought that my life would acutally have turned out this way. But I'm glad that it did.