Posts tagged “grief”

Take a Moment

Posted on March 3, 2013

I remember right before we got married someone said to us, “Take a moment. Forget about thanking people for coming or about when the next toast is, just take a moment. The day goes by so fast and you deserve one sliver of time for just the two of you.” I remember not understanding, but filing away the advice. I am grateful, because we did take a moment away from the crowd to drink each other in as well as the significance of the day. I carry that advice with me and it came in to play Friday night. We had our industry’s big night, a regional award ceremony recognizing the work of 2012. The theme was Mad Men and it carried with it…

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Categories: Love, Work

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Force

Posted on February 18, 2013

I remember practicing penny drops and dead man’s drops on the bars at Harris Elementary School in the early 80s. Before mastering either, you started with the help of a friend, they would hold your hands and do the dramatic swing chant, “One, two, three…” and the first couple you couldn’t do it, “No, wait.” Eventually though, you took the turn that finally gave you the freedom to penny drop alone. I loved the sensation of swinging my body back and forth until I felt that perfect balance of speed and height. I would flip my legs, launching myself out away from the bar and then quickly turn and plant my feet on the ground, maybe I’d throw my arms up ala Nadia Comaneci…

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Categories: Me

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Sweeping Grief

Posted on December 14, 2012

As a society we have a fundamental responsibility to protect our young. This isn’t political, it’s not parent vs non-parent—it is the basic proposition of keeping the defenseless safe. Our system is broken and kids are dying. It will take our collective willingness—our coming together despite political, social and economic differences, to fix our shared, incomprehensible reality that our children aren’t safe at school. Or at the mall. Or at the movie theatre. Today I watched my kids’ bus come home with a mixture of horror and shameful gratitude. Every bus, every child, they should always come home. May those sweet souls rest in peace and may their families find themselves surrounded in love and support from all of us.

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Categories: Random

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Aches

Posted on November 14, 2012

She writes from waiting rooms, literal and figurative. Her updates paint a portrait that but for a few brushstrokes could be my own. There isn’t a word she shares that doesn’t make me think—sometimes it’s Eugene in the late 70s, other times it’s different track meets for different high schools and other times still it is: Am I grateful enough? It’s morbid and pointless, but when someone is going through something you imagine what if it was me? Or maybe that’s just me. I find myself searching so deep, wishing for something else that I could do, some combination of words that might make her situation not so. Even this post, I struggle because is this self indulgent, does this help in any way?…

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Categories: Random

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