Tag: daddy

Fathers Day 2021

Sunkissedsoul

Happiest Fathers Day in Heaven to our dear Daddy. 💔❤️.

As I sit on the porch of a home you never got to see, I’m sipping my coffee and thinking of you. You would be proud of my little garden, no matter if it was succeeding or failing.

By this time in the morning, you would be up, you would’ve gone for your walk and been freshly showered and smelled like cologne and you (sometimes I think I catch a whiff of you and then it’s gone.)

You most certainly would’ve kissed mom good morning, even if she was still sleeping. I remember when I used to sneak in bed with you guys, you would kiss both of us goodbye in the early morning. Often giving my foot an over the cover squeeze with your big ole hands, and nothing felt safer.

Back in the good ole days, you would’ve been making breakfast for all of us and chopping up somebody’s eggs the way only you could.

I miss you in all of the ways. We all do.

No matter how much I seek you, there will never be another you. I look for pieces of you every day in everyone and everything.

I hope you are dancing in heaven and knowing how well loved you always were and will always be.

Soulful Saturday

Sunkissedsoul

Prepping to make Easter bread.

I haven’t made it the last two years…too many hurtful memories around the season.

This year, I’m making a choice to do different, even if it’s hard. It’s absolutely perfect outside and I’ve just made my billionth visit to my little planted garden today.

It’s as if I expect to see visible changes immediately. But just like my dear friend said, so much is going on below the surface, even when we can’t see it.

My “below the surface” has been working hard for so long and I feel like I’m starting to feel a smidgen of the new life that process brings. This means I’m still pruning what doesn’t belong to make room for new growth. (Aka letting go). That part kinda stinks. I’m physically energized and emotionally drained. Holding on for too long has taken ALL the effort.

Anyway…as I wandered around my yard, breathing in the fresh air, dancing around to Van Morrison, I thought to myself, “maybe some of my closest friends are right, maybe I shoulda been born in the flower child years.”

Ah well. Thankful for the hear and now, the new and the old.

I need to have lots of cookouts here this summer and fall…part of me believes/hopes/wonders if this is our last year in this home that has served us so well.

Tomorrow would be our Daddy’s 85th birthday. Of course, I would’ve made him his very own loaf of Easter bread. Maybe that’s why I keep coming outside, it’s so easy to feel connected with him here.

Anyway….breathing it all in.

Rooted in change…then and now

Sunkissedsoul

Transformation, alteration, renewal, metamorphosis….constant change is a certainty of this human experience.  Stubborn resistance may root us in place.  Still, the very change that surrounds will also change us.  Why resist?  We are forever becoming.

I was playing a little game with a friend, we were giving each other a number, and we had to share the photo from our phones that matched that number.  He asked to see the 10th picture of only me.

The 10th picture of only me sent me spinning with shame and embarrassment.  I could not show him this one.  However, I promised…no cheating.  Before sending the photo, I let him know that this was taken at one of the worst times of my life.  My ex-husband had just told me he no longer loved me and wanted a divorce; my precious daddy was dying after a 12 year battle with Alzheimer’s.  The picture (which is here for all the world to see) was a clear image of a lady who had no love for herself and her eyes held a deep sadness, despite the smile on her face. The only reason I share it is because I am trying to practice what I preach…vulnerability and transparency. In this moment, I also share in hopes of diminishing the pier of shame this photo holds.

This precious friend heard my shame and replied with, ‘it’s just a selfie, look at your smile’.  Then he made me laugh with a gentle joke about chipmunk cheeks.  I never thought I’d giggle looking at that picture, but I did, and it was genuine.  However, I have obsessed over that picture since.  It’s not just that I hadn’t realized how much I changed, it brought back a rush of painful memories.

I remember the day the man who was the only love I’d ever known told me he was leaving.  I was inundated with feelings of unworthiness, disposability and fear.  For some reason, I made a little video on my phone to myself.  I guess to commemorate the day.  I very clearly stated (to myself) that I wanted to learn to love myself, no matter who else loved or didn’t love me.  That my friends, is the journey of transformation I have been and am still on.

My timehop today reminded me that at this time last year, I had lost 20 pounds on Weight Watchers.  I then stopped Weight Watchers, and started doing my own thing.  It’s called the ‘keto’ish but not all the way because life is too short to not enjoy ice cream” diet.  Clean eating pretty much, low carb, very low sugar and almost no processed foods.  In doing this, I have lost another 28 pounds.  This makes 48 pounds gone!  I should be so proud.

Rather, my first reaction was “wow!, but I have so long to go.”  I began a laundry list of all the men who would like me better if I had a better body, and of how life would be different if my ass matched my sass!  (Borrowed from a favorite meme).  Somehow, I stopped myself in the middle of my negative recitation.  I wondered to myself, “what will it take for me to be good enough?”

I asked myself what I wanted.  Easy.  I want to love myself.  As is.  I want to believe I am enough and honor that deeply, no matter where I am on my journey.  I want to be excited about the work I am doing for ME while enjoying who I am right in this moment.

I want to practice gratitude, for I have so much to be grateful for.  I am here, breathing.  I am a miracle, just as we all are.  Life is the celebration!  I have two legs that are strong and lovely, and they get me where I want to go.  The gift of walking was taken away from me in 2009 and I had to relearn that skill at the age of 35.  How dare I fuss that I am not enough?  My heart is strong; it is full of love, life and laughter.  I can easily exercise on the elliptical for 35 minutes without rest.  I might not be the most graceful, but I am me and I am a masterpiece.  There is no one like me, ever, anywhere.  I am blessed in every way, I want to remember this every second of every moment of every day.

I want to realize that when someone asks me out on a date, they are every bit as lucky to have time with me as I am to have time with them.  It is not settling to be with me, it is a gift, for I am pretty damn cool.  I want to stand in this truth.  It changes my choices, it changes everything.

I want to show my kiddos who I am at my core and that we are ALL capable and worthy of beautiful, positive, transformation…their Momma included.

There is so much joy in the transformation these days…one day the pain will be nothing but a motivator for better.