Punchy Protagonist

 A very dear friend of mine posted on social media once about a family member that had passed away. She listed all the things they taught her, lots of good memories and skills she still uses. She ended the post by expressing that the one thing they didn't teach her was how to  live without them.  Truer words... The five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Or that's what "they" say. If you ask me, the five stages of grief are aksdnfa;ohn['aoingalkdn'[oaidngalksdngfa;osidf because honestly grief is just a big ol jumbled mess of emotions that can change from one second to the next. Anything can be a trigger to take you forward a stage or back three.  Maybe this falls under depression. Maybe it does not fall under anything.  But here it is and here I am, feeling it's weight at the most random of times. It began a few days ago when I sewed up some holes in my husband's pants. I did a decent job and even replaced the ne...

I am not sure if I am more hyper-aware of sayings and quotes about grief due to recent events, or maybe social media really has gotten to the point of mind reading, which I've honestly suspected. Either way, consciously or unconsciously, more of them have been popping up lately. "I've been reading that the brain is like a muscle. It's why getting over a death is so hard, because your brain has been trained to feel things for a person, and when they go away, your head is still operating under the impression that it should feel those things for that person, like muscle memory." -Dan Levy, Good Grief "Grief doesn't want attention. Grief is a hand on your chest. A hand no one can see." -- Steven Dietz , This Random World "And why does nothing change? Why does the vending machine keep working? Why do the phones still ring? Shouldn’t something be different?" -Steven Dietz, This Random World "What is grief, if not love persevering." -Vi...

There have been some recent events that have made me think more about family. Not just the word, but the meaning and the concept. There are a few dictionary definitions when it comes to the term "family."   a group of persons of common ancestry a people or group of peoples regarded as deriving from a common stock But, at least to me, family is more than what any dictionary can define. Family is the people that are there for you when it counts. They are the ones that laugh with you until you hurt and hug you harder when you are hurting. The ones that you would come running for in a heartbeat and you know they would do the same for you. The ones that check on you--care about you--accept and appreciate you for who you are. And sometimes the reality of the situation is that those people may not be blood relation. They may not be relation at all.  The reality is that sometimes those that should live up to my description, sadly, do not. In my 33 years on this Earth I have reali...

 Normalize calling people out when they are acting like jerks. Hear me out. I know that we live in a society where, around every corner, there is someone just waiting to be offended about something. I also know there is something to be said about picking your battles. Being a teacher, I inadvertently stumbled into knowing a lot about this. In my mother's words, sometimes you have to decide whether it's "a hill you want to die on." I have also noticed that we live in a society that seems to be devoid of the concept of consequences. It is "easier," in whatever fictional rationality some people have made, to let individuals be. I have heard a phrase along the lines of people "living their truth." People are under the impression that they and they alone inhabit the center of the universe. Everyone and everything revolves around them, their opinions, and what they had for breakfast that morning. Nothing is as important as whatever is in that precious li...

 I have not posted about losing my beloved corgi, Hardy. I have mentioned it, fully and completely planning on dedicating a post to him, but I have not. I could not. Every time my fingers began to type, the lump in my throat would come back and I would have to relive that day over in my head. Even as I type now, my fingers shake and feel as though they might cramp. Blogging is usually so cathartic for me, so therapeutic. There are so many times that the only way I can truly express my feelings and thoughts is through writing. I am hopeful that as I type these, I will gain some sort of relief or release. Because, as of this moment, the knots in my stomach and throat say otherwise. When I close my eyes some nights, I can still see his little lifeless body on our bedroom floor. After a day of coaxing him from under the porch and trying several suggested treatments, he passed in a place that he felt comfort, a place where he spent so many nights when he would get too hot in the bed wit...

 These kinds of things just don't happen... around here. to us. to people like that. right now. this soon. Versions of this same sad song seem to play on repeat.... when they found her car in the river when I got the text about her brother when I saw the picture of us on the memorial slideshow when he text them where to find his body when she called my mother sobbing when 9 years did not seem like enough time I have thought this all too often lately. I am not naïve. I have been privy to such things for years. I know they exist. But now, left to my own devices, they haunt me. In such volume and so close to this heart of mine...I did not imagine. The truth is none of us know. What is happening. What will happen.  I should have seen the signs. I could have done more. What could I have changed? Why? Darkness is not my friend. Neither is solitude. My tears seem to cleanse what my heart wants to leak out, but it does not cleanse my mind. Not of the thoughts of what was. Not of the t...

This video shows a sad day in Arkansas as a brightly-clad crowd stood on the steps of the Arkansas Capitol Building belting out "Seasons of Love" in protest of a new proposed bill. Senate Bill 43 l in (and I regrettably say this at the moment) my home state wants to limit what they are calling "drag" performances, putting them in the same category as strip clubs and putting many restrictions on places that hold these performances. They cannot be within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, etc, and prohibits them from public property. It would also prohibit those under 18 from watching. The incredibly vague definition of drag performances in the bill keeps throwing around the term "prurient interest," which I would love to pretend I did not have to Google...but I did. Apparently, it means "having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters." So there you go.  I read in another article that, somehow I suppose in an attempt to "make it b...