Going through a lot of “stuff” right now. For awhile now, actually, but “life kicking me in the ass” really picked it up a notch about a week or so ago, and it hasn’t let up since. To put it bluntly, things kind of suck right now. I realize that I say this a lot […]
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Getting Back on the Write Road and a Tribute to Lonnie Hull Dupont
As I resettle in to life in to life in a log home in rural Florida, my creativity is encouraged by the slower pace of life and natural beauty of this area. Unpacking more boxes, I recently came upon a stash of books, mostly animal-rescue anthologies published by the Revell-Baker Group to which I’d contributed […]
My Small, Odd Family
My nephew predictably had waited until Sunday afternoon to notify me that he was hosting a birthday dinner for his twelve-year-old daughter and her fourteen-year-old brother on Tuesday evening at the retirement home where their grandfather resides. I didn’t feel slighted. Members of my small, odd family tend to operate on such an ad hoc […]
Sailing the Seas
Last year after we celebrated the twins’ birthday for the first year without Erik, I realized sitting in the quiet aftermath of the party that I did not want to do this anymore moving forward. I didn’t want to throw birthday parties the way we used to, without my husband, mostly as the twins share […]
From Angry to Thankful
Grief changes when life changes; and when life changes, grief changes. But maybe the biggest thing that constantly changes and evolves is US. If we want to. If we choose to. If we allow the grief to be that annoying friend that you just can’t seem to shake, instead of treating her as the enemy. As we […]
Olde Florida, New Traditions
I awoke this Saturday Morning realizing I hadn’t prepared a post for today. The onset of the Holiday Season, my Mom’s health issues in New York State that took me away for days and of course the moving process of the past few weeks has taken much of my time and energy. Last week I […]
Thanksgiving Then and Now
As in most families, our Thanksgiving traditions had their own rhythms. We’d gather at mom and dads’ place around mid-afternoon. You could count on my sister to arrive on time except when she arrived early. I, on the other hand, at least while I remained unmarried, could be counted upon to shuffle by later. First […]
Colder Weather
With my second Thanksgiving without Erik right around the corner, I find myself getting multiple flashbacks of all our past Thanksgivings. Thanksgiving was the first time I introduced Erik to my family a decade ago. The thought of another year with an empty seat with his name on it sets in more this second time […]
Coffee
Today we threw out my Keurig coffee maker. It stopped working and functioning correctly, so I drove it to the town dump this morning, along with this weeks other trash items; never to be seen again. My parents bought me that Keurig somewhere around 2013 or 2014. I cannot recall the exact year, because it […]
One Thousand Five Hundred Twenty-Seven
It’s a recurring theme for me: something occurs that roils my emotional waters, instantly flooding me with dark memories of grief-filled days when the icy reality of Lee’s death occupied my every waking moment. Such emotional waves are not connected to a specific date, place, or occasion, but rather surface unexpectedly, and can be triggered […]
When They Call You Mrs
I don’t find myself in many situations where there is an opportunity for me to be addressed formerly. 99.9% of the time I answer to Emily and Mom. Thankfully, my boys haven’t started calling me Bruh…yet. Last week I was volunteering at the elementary school for the bookfair. The kids get to shop or browse […]
Missing Toronto and Living Life
There was a time when I didn’t just GO to each Camp Widow event that happened every year, I NEEDED to go to every single Camp Widow event that happened each year. Like, it was a necessity for my mental health , for my sanity, for my well-being, and for my being able to have […]