- Be the Light in the Dark of This Danger ‘til the Sun Comes Up - March 5, 2025
- Let’s Be Clear … Ignorance Is Not Bliss! - February 12, 2025
- Our National Days of Mourning - January 9, 2025
Post Pi-Day, Ides of March, & Pre-St Patrick’s Day Greetings!
Whew! That makes for quite a week. And … in addition (if that’s not enough) this week also marks a couple of life-changing personal anniversaries for me which I’ve decided to share with you. Why? Why not. We’re all in the bittersweet soup of Life together. Our experiences may be very different, but they all boil down to the same basic themes of Birth, Death, and Everything in Between.
On March 18th, 2014 at 3:20am my second-born child and eldest son, Mike, just 13 days before his 53rd birthday, quietly left his cancer-ridden body in the presence of what I like to think were two of his three favorite women … his mom and his beloved only daughter, Jessica. His sister Chris’s plane landed at daylight. Not too many weeks before, Mike had been hopeful that we might celebrate Mardi Gras together. It was his favorite holiday … his idea of Heaven. We often sang along with Paul Simon, and “Take Me to the Mardi Gras” has become part of my annual ritual of remembrance, along with our family supper of Mike’s favorites … this year it’s Spaghetti with Meatballs & Italian Sausage. If you’d like to celebrate Mike with me, try this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON6CAytzIHE
March 16, 2016 was the day I had two stents implanted to clear arterial blockages that were causing me some discomfort, and while in the recovery room, along came a stroke that caused me to speak in ‘word salad’ for almost 24 hours. It scared the daylights out of my kids and close friends and when the aphasia spontaneously cleared it puzzled the doctors even more than it puzzled me. I’ve heard it said that miracles happen every day, we’re just not looking in their direction. This one didn’t go unnoticed and even though it apparently began a chain of events that kept me hospitalized off and on throughout the next year, culminating with a surgery on March 16, 2017, I would not be where I am today without it. I am filled with gratitude for every moment of that year and the ones that have continued to follow … grateful for then, for now, and for Everything in Between.
So … Happy Women’s History Month, St. Patrick’s Day, and especially HAPPY SPRING! Oh yes, and did I mention that I truly believe it is Humor that paves the bridge between the bitter & the sweet?
