Tag: gratitude

Thoughts on “Donna” -or- Gratitude

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Photo taken from thelumineers.com and you can click on this text to take you to their site.

Sometimes it’s neither the words, nor how they are said, but how many.

My mom couldn’t braid hair, so I never wore them.

Haven’t we all lost our wallet? I hate it when that happens.

My daughter is far from ordinary and my son was born in December, not February. I couldn’t hold him once, and that was frightening.*  Now they both live over a thousand miles away.

I’ve never met anyone named Junior, and I’m pretty sure that my husband loves bicycles and dogs more than computers. As my father always told me, parents are amateurs… that’s a deep thought, meditate on that for a while.

Nobody should be judging strangers’ karma, their souls, their clothes, or cars, none of it. And seriously? Trucks have always made me a bit nervous on the many cross-country drives I’ve been able to take.

Sometimes, we all need help getting to bed, don’t we?

I dearly hope that people will say that I’ve raised not just one, but two saints. That is, after they’ve had a long time to brighten the lives of countless people, as they do mine.

I’ve always liked my name.

I am utterly thankful for what I call my uneventful life. Take care of those who need help, because we all need help in one way or another.

Thanks for reading, Donna

Click here for a link to the lyrics to the song Donna by the Lumineers

*I nearly dropped my son once- a virus affected my muscles. All of them. At 3:00 in the morning I woke my husband to tell him I was driving myself to the ER because it’s pretty frightening to not be able to hold your infant when he needs to eat. For a couple days after I just sat in one spot on the floor during the day and had my daughter run back and forth to fetch things that we needed… we kind of made a game out of our camp out in the family room.

Rx for Grief: Family and Friends

One of the PHENOMENAL views from Mary's home
One of the PHENOMENAL views from Mary’s home

Sometimes, extended family comes along at just the right time, in ways that you never would have expected. Take advantage of these people when you really need it- in times of stress, grief, loss.

My grandmother passed away on my daughter’s 18th birthday. I learned of her passing within the hour, as we were getting ready to attend our church’s Easter service. Even though we knew her hour was near, it was still devastating. In an interesting way, just the week before, we had received an invitation to come for Easter dinner to my sister-in-law’s friend’s mother’s house (did you follow that?)… not just my immediate family, but my parents and brother, too. It turns out, this was an enormous relief. We spent time with extended family and friends and were able to focus on happier times, past and present.

My parents watching all the kids participate in Mary's Amazing and Lucrative Egg Hunt
My parents watching all the kids participate in Mary’s Amazing and Lucrative Egg Hunt

I am very thankful for the ever generous Mary and her Easter dinner and festivities. Very thankful! We are social creatures, we humans. We must allow our friends and family to help redirect our sad thoughts when the time is right. We need each other!

Today, I created an account on BloomNation.com, a flower service that hooks you up with local florists who create some pretty gorgeous arrangements. They will be sending Mary a nice bouquet form all of us, and hopefully our thank you note will arrive at close to the same time.

The Girl and her Grandma
The Girl and her Grandma

The only thing I wish I could include in this post is a few photos of my sis-in-law, her husband and kids, her friend, husband and kids, her sister, and of course, Mary! I wasn’t in the picture taking frame of mind that Easter Sunday and am kicking myself now…

“A friend in need is a friend indeed.”