I post a lot when I’m sad / frustrated / angry / devastated / etc.
But…today was a good day…bordering on a great day. And not because of anything earth shattering, just a sequence of what felt like small victories.
My H is feeling pretty good, considering his recent hospital stay.
I decided to do NOTHING today. No returned calls, no housecleaning, nothing proactive. Didn’t get H up…thought he (and I) should just rest today.
Had a couple of no stress conversations with H about his expectations and wishes from here on out. I accepted whatever he said with no back and forth.
My son called to vent to me a situation with repairing his truck. I listened quietly and gave no advice initially, and resisted the urge to "mother" him. When he was ready for my input, I suggested he take a little while to be totally bummed that it wasn’t going to turn out as he was planning, then when he was ready, we could brainstorm.
I also supported a couple of options he came up with. Usually he gets bonkers with self pity and exaggerated doom, but today, in reference to my saying that he may have to "travel from GA to LA to get to FLA, but he would get there". And…I can’t even believe I’m typing this, he told me that reminded him of his favorite Bible verse… and proceeded to quote it for me. It was one I was not even familiar with myself. But he knew it Word for Word, and knew what it meant.
First, I want to say that I’m not trying to make a religious point here. Just telling the story to illustrate how he had added to my great day, because that was so important to me personally. Especially since he has not been particularly focused on things of a spiritual nature recently.
On the way home from work, (I’m taking both of them to work because both of their trucks happen to be out of commission at the same time!), my other son told me of a hitch in his plans with his truck as well, but he had already figured out an alternate plan. Awesome, because this son mostly uses anger in situations like this.
Came home and saw my grand baby whom I had not seen in a couple of weeks. A total angel who always makes me super happy.
Then I found out, through looking at pictures online, that my new five-month-old puppy is probably NOT a beagle/basset hound mix, but probably more likely to be a beagle/Texas coon hound mix. who get to be between 65 and 80 pounds at maturity. Yikes! But I adore her, however HUGE she will be! She makes me smile!!!
Then I had a conversation with my H regarding his hopes / plans. What he wants to look forward doing at this point in his life. There are no races to win, no more businesses to start, etc. He and I came up with family stuff, attention to his health, church attendance, etc. I said, "Great, we’ll start tomorrow ", and left it at that.
And I’m not sure whether or not I shared with you all about my son who is incarcerated. When my husband was in ICU, and they were having trouble keeping his blood pressure in a life-sustaining range, I got on the telephone and spoke with some of the jail officials regarding a "deathbed visitation". Thank God we didn’t have to use it at this time. Later on, I spoke gently with my son about the fact that I had checked into such a thing. I was so scared to breach the subject because he is my most vulnerable son regarding bad news, hurtful news. But he answered with a quiet strength. He told me that he understood the situation and that he was praying for his dad every single day. And that I needed to stay strong.
And now, as I was writing this post, one of my sons called me to the front porch to discuss how totally freaked out he was about seeing his dad incoherent on the night that we took him to the hospital. And about how he doesn’t know how he will be able to deal with the pain when he loses his dad. That is certainly a very sad situation for him to be in, but the fact that he came to me to talk to me, and that we could have a 15 to 20 minute conversation about it, was quite amazing.
I don’t know if these things would seem like milestones to some of you, but it seems as though over the last two or three days, I have had amazingly positive interactions with every member of my immediate family.
And I am just so very thankful for it.😊