Good luck, Cathy! I'm on my 3rd-chance career and my umpteenth-and-final chance relationship. Both are working out very well indeed!

It's like making pancakes. In my family we always call the first one the Sacrifice to the Pancake Gods, because it's always wrong somehow: undercooked, overcooked, falling apart. But you can't make the 2nd, 3rd, etc good pancakes until you've made the first wrong one, because it's cooking the first one that helps you adjust the pan to the exact right temperature. So you just feed the first one to the dog, or chuck it in the compost, and move on to the next one as quickly as possible.

And I reckon it's the same with life - there are just some things that you have to learn from experience, and the only way to do that is to just get on with it. Learn your lesson and then put it into practice the next time with greater success!

Oh wait! I have been given a second chance. Remember that cream dress...? :p

Perhaps not life changing, but a happy ending nonetheless...

Stringy I love the 'Sacrifice to the Pancake Gods'

LOL!

Feeling rather bleak at the moment about most areas of my life. eg. Had a second chance with my ex - but the second-time 'round was even sadder and less successful than the first and now that's over, too. Had second chance with career but it never lived up to my first.

I hope some second - or third, or fourth - chances will be coming my way before too long but for now I'm just in full grieving mode; changing from a caterpillar to a butterfly (I hope!) is painful.

I'm sorry you are still hurting Mac
Allow yourself the time to grieve...there will be a rainbow at the end...promise

Grieving takes time - spend a little cocoon-time with yourself for now. It makes you stronger for when it's time to be a butterfly again...

This is a touching thread April, I love my parents dearly but for me my second chance came when I left home and moved across the country at 18. I needed to put physical distance between us to allow emotional wounds to heal. My Mum is the most wonderfully caring person you will ever meet but her schizophrenia is incredibly destructive. I guess at 18 I decided I would not be a victim of my circumstances and took my second chance.

I fear that I'm on the brink of a second chance, and I'd prefer to stay with my first chance, thank you very much. We'll see - maybe there will be a second chance with my first chance. How's that for an elliptical use of chance?

I love reading people's stories of renewal. It's inspiring so inspiring.

Yes, this is a touching thread!
April, I see what you meant - and yes, we all can change our situations at any time, if that's what we want to do. When you are young, it might seem like you only get a first and second chance but now at my advanced age (wink, wink), I realize the chances are infinite.

Amen, Laura!