Adultery and divorce and broken hearts. That's all meaningless right now. I just want my dad to be okay. He's an imperfect man but he has been my rock, along with my mom, for the last year and I pray that he pulls through this.
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Family Is Everything
Family is everything. Tonight I sit in a hospital room praying for my father's life. A stroke, the doctors believe, but they are unsure after hours of tests. My father lays unconscious, hooked to a ventilator. My mother and I sit and wait and wonder what the future holds.
Friday, March 21, 2014
How the *%$#$ Did This Happen?
This week I attended a meeting hosted by our local middle school's principal. Next year, my precious little girl will be headed to fifth grade. Middle school. Uh what? How the fuck did that happen? How did so many years pass by so quickly?
I sat in the school gymnasium surrounded by the other shell shocked parents. 'Do you need any volunteers? I'm used to being at school several times a week,' one mom asked. 'Do the middle schoolers AND high schoolers ride on the bus at the same time?', a worried looking father questioned. 'Are the eighth graders segregated from the younger kids?', a tired looking woman pleaded.
As I looked around, I had one thought. How the hell did I end up here? A parent with a child soon in double digits. A parent with a mortgage and a car payment (and oh yeah, I should say 'a divorced parent'.) I felt like a fraud sitting there. It was only yesterday when I was in middle school myself, worried about who I would sit with on the bus and who I would be paired up with in gym class. Are other parents feeling this way? Are they thinking how the hell did I end up here? How the hell did this happen?
Time passes by so quickly. In the blink of an eye. I'm going to treasure each and every moment of the journey now. Soon enough my own kids will be sitting as parents in a similar gymnasium looking around in a daze at the years that have flown by. Cherish every minute, I tell myself, and you can start....tomorrow. Right after you get through parent/teacher conferences tonight, make supper, put away the laundry, do the dishes, feed the dogs, read the kids a book, put them to bed and get ready to do it all over again the next day. Yes, tomorrow I'll start reveling in every moment, today I'm just trying to get through another day.
I sat in the school gymnasium surrounded by the other shell shocked parents. 'Do you need any volunteers? I'm used to being at school several times a week,' one mom asked. 'Do the middle schoolers AND high schoolers ride on the bus at the same time?', a worried looking father questioned. 'Are the eighth graders segregated from the younger kids?', a tired looking woman pleaded.
As I looked around, I had one thought. How the hell did I end up here? A parent with a child soon in double digits. A parent with a mortgage and a car payment (and oh yeah, I should say 'a divorced parent'.) I felt like a fraud sitting there. It was only yesterday when I was in middle school myself, worried about who I would sit with on the bus and who I would be paired up with in gym class. Are other parents feeling this way? Are they thinking how the hell did I end up here? How the hell did this happen?
Time passes by so quickly. In the blink of an eye. I'm going to treasure each and every moment of the journey now. Soon enough my own kids will be sitting as parents in a similar gymnasium looking around in a daze at the years that have flown by. Cherish every minute, I tell myself, and you can start....tomorrow. Right after you get through parent/teacher conferences tonight, make supper, put away the laundry, do the dishes, feed the dogs, read the kids a book, put them to bed and get ready to do it all over again the next day. Yes, tomorrow I'll start reveling in every moment, today I'm just trying to get through another day.
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