In Your Easter Bonnet....with all the frills upon it...

 

Easter Sunday....the memories of my childhood....and my children's did not really get to me this year...too much.   I have almost forgotten what it was like making Easter baskets, coloring and hiding eggs, remembering at the last minute that I did not, in fact, have a decent carrot

to leave out for the Easter bunny.  My daughter and I were remembering how she and her brother would fight to the death to win the Easter Egg hunt (yes, I know---very holy of them 😉.  But what fun memories those were.  One of my favorites of my childhood is when my mom forgot where she hid the last egg and a few weeks later we smelled it...I mean found it!  I was far too excited this year that I was going to be able to spend the day at the beach!  I cancelled the dinner reservations we had made (just in case) and off we went.  

On the way to the beach we were engrossed in a deep conversation about God only knows what - but I know we were discussing something serious.  I asked my daughter to go in the console and see if I had hand lotion or a perfume roller ball in there (can't remember which) and seemingly out of nowhere a photo of my dad appeared.

We have been driving his car since he passed in 2021.  I have been through that console dozens of times since, including cleaning out things that I could bear to part with.  So how did I never see this photo?  Instant tears started flowing.  My daddy....never far away.  My daughter and I both took it as confirmation that he was handling any and all issues we faced.  Look at that face....so strong.  I recalled, once again, how lucky I was to have him as my dad.  My children to have him as their poppa.  He was not a Saint by any stretch of the imagination.  But the relationship I built with him as an adult has shaped me in more ways than I can really count.  My work ethic, my sense of right and wrong....all the things that help make me- well me.  Last week my creme filling son was facing an issue with his company and as we discussed it he sent me photos and proof of his side of the situation.  I complimented him and told him that is what Pop always taught us.  Document everything.  It became a joke between my sister and I about how Daddy told us to keep notes about every situation in life.  Time, date, applicable players.  But we do it.  And obviously I passed that down to my kids.  It makes me so happy when I see my parents lessons come out in my kids.  My daughter often says, when she is cleaning or organizing, that she knows how happy her Yaya is when she's doing it.

I have always been an "out of sight, out of mind" type of person.  My mom would say I was "so fickle", because I could change my mind about people at the drop of a hat. It always bothered me.  Why do I not miss people?  Why do I not think about people when I don't see them often?  But I now realize - that is not the truth.  There are certain people (my parents included) that are never really out of my mind.  I am learning that it wasn't that I was "out of sight, out of mind" it is that those people aren't my people.  It's not a flaw, it's a gift!  I don't have time to pine over people that really don't care to be in my life unless I am the one making the effort.  My energy is better spent on the people who do want me in their life and take the time to show me that, because every day----is an important one and not just a day in the life!

Welcome 2020

Here we are again....the end of the year, but this year it's the end of a decade!  My memory is fuzzy but this decade was jam packed for sure.  I started it with my oldest being 16 and ended it with my youngest being 16.  I got divorced, moved 3 times (once across the country), I discovered my connection to my angels and the spiritual realm, I went from being a stay at home mom to working for 2 different companies full time...those are just the basics.  I don't even recognize the woman I was 10 years ago...hell I don't recognize the woman I was 12 short months ago.  I began this year with so much hope and conviction of what would transpire during this year.  I am ending it with the knowledge that I don't know anything and that sometimes life is just what it is and you have to accept it.    In this decade there have been communions, confirmations, surgeries, engagements, graduations - high school and college, weddings, deaths and births, beginnings and endings, more than I can count.  My heart has been overflowing and it's been broken.  Has it been different than past decades?  I think so.  I think the events that transpired were harder than ever before.  I've become numb to things that would have destroyed me in the past.  I don't feel things as deeply as I have in the past---is that age?  Maybe.  But I think it is more about disappointment breaking down the ability to feel as deeply.  The fear of feeling utter joy and bliss because the pain of it being taken away is too devastating than never feeling that joy and bliss in the first place.  I am ending this decade in a place of acceptance.  Accepting life as it is and not expecting anything but what is.  If something good comes then I'm pleasantly surprised, if something bad happens I'm not shocked.  I know that it is all in God's hands at the end of the day and in His time.  That brings peace.  Joy is something I've traded for peace I suppose.  I'm not going to lie, I miss joy.  Even when I am at my happiest I am unable to feel joy.  I'm making that my mission in this next decade---to not let the fear of it being taken away to stop me from feeling joy.  Or maybe contentment is what you feel as you get older.  I look around and I see people just existing and I never wanted to be that person.  I never wanted to just allow life to pass by without truly embracing the wonderful moments.

Thanksgiving was a great day.  We enjoyed dinner and then went to Disney  World.  I had my kids all with me, everyone was getting along-  but I just didn't feel fully happy. I was standing in the kitchen looking at my family gathered around the table together, laughing and that woman who started the decade would have been bursting with joy.  My daughter turned 16 this month.  My sister flew in to surprise her and it was really a wonderful weekend.  I looked around the table when we were all laughing and truly enjoying being together, yet joy wouldn't come.  That's when I realized something was wrong.  That's when I realized that this decade really did kick my ass.  I vowed that I was going to change that.  I was going to find out how to get that joy back.  In fact, I decided I'm going to write a book about this very thing.  This can't be all there is---just existence. I don't want to believe it.  Yet that is where I'm at.

Well I took a break in writing this and this past weekend brought a situation back that has broken my heart in the past more than once.  I handled it like a robot.  I had absolutely no emotion.  I just went through the motions and stoically handled  it.  I called my sister to inform her of the situation and told her how I just didn't care anymore, that it didn't matter.  After a lengthy conversation she convinced me that I was blocking any feeling because I just could not allow it again.  I couldn't allow myself to feel the pain anymore. Shit.  As usual, she knows me pretty damn well and confirmed my earlier suspicions .  I went about my day and I slowly found myself remembering things that made me feel differently.  She was right.  I have blocked things that make me feel the pain and heartbreak of certain situations.  I have stopped hoping for better things on the horizon, I've stopped thinking that happy endings are guaranteed.  I am still a firm believer in "everything happens for a reason" and that God's plan is always unfolding, however I've given up thinking things will get better.  I do believe that whatever comes I will have the strength to deal with it.

I suppose what I need to decide as I enter this next decade is if being numb is better than feeling the good and the bad and all the emotions in between.  In this decade I have felt the happiest I had in my entire life and the most broken and sad as well.   I know I've written about this before and back then I decided that being numb was not the answer, because I would rather 5 minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special (Thank you Shelby/Steel Magnolias).  I think I'd like to change my answer.  I'll take numb for $500 Alex.  I guess what the last decade has taught me is how to deal with everything life throws at me without getting wrapped around the axle about it.  I just treat it all like it's just a day in the life, because, after all----that's what it is.