17 year ago today my life suddenly started to fall apart around me. It’s a moment I will never forget. My wife and mother of my two boy said she was leaving. 

6 weeks later I got arrested for cultivation of cannabis. At the same time my business partnership was very strained and I ended up walking away from my business. 

Over the coming 14 months I spent on police bail life was fucking hard. My doctor put me on anti depressants, something I had never had before and I was smoking way too much weed. I was also eating and drinking way too much. 

Fast forward to October 2007 and I ended up going to prison for two years.. A massive, massive shock.

This is the short version but needless to say one of the worst times of my life. 

So why I am writing this? Well sitting here now with the benefit of a lot of time passing and looking back on those times, despite what I thought at the time, despite how fucking brutal they were, I got through them. 

Ive had a few bumps in the road since that time of my life, but I look back now, 17 years on from my life seemingly imploding and I’m very grateful for some of the things that came out of that time:

I was gutted when my wife left, The worse feeling ever, but looking back now it was never meant to be. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the time we had together and two amazing boys our relationship gave us both,  but I can see being much older now that the relationship was a big mistake in many ways. 

I felt beyond gutted when I got arrested for growing 220 plants in a warehouse in Leicester. Again, never being in trouble with the law before I was shitting myself for 14 months, but looking back now I can take some lessons from that experience and I’m also very grateful for the some very special relationships I made throughout that period of my life.. Long term win, for massive short term (well two years) pain. 

My old Grandad used to say: “You have a book of life” meaning, you pretty much map your own life out, and I like to think that also means everything happens for a reason. 

Right here and now. I’m blessed to have a great girlfriend who is supportive and who I have been with for nearly 6 years. I have a great family, my boys are developing into great men and I generally happier with life more than I have been in a long time. I’m excited for the future and the plans I have and look back on those years and think that all of those thing needed to happen in order for me to get where I am now. 

So here is my message to you. What ever shit you are going through, no matter how utterly crap you feel, no matter what bullshit is going on in your life right now or may in the future…. Remember this…. 

THINGS WILL ALWAYS WORK OUT!

Trust me, I know about this shit and I’m living proof that if you keep going, never fucking give up and battle on things will turn around. 😉 

Keep it real folks, 

Mark Lyford