Put It In A Suitcase

I was in church yesterday, listening to a sermon about letting go and forgiveness and moving on. I was sitting next to a man who knew also exactly that the message was aimed at our pew (and I am sure many others). We were asked to write down the past hurts from a relationship or things we were holding onto in our lives. After writing, we brought up our private information and put it in a suitcase which was zipped and rolled away; a symbol of the removal of them from our lives if we truly let go.

I knew there would be a few more steps in my letting go. A couple of phone calls and hard swallows helped us get through it and let it go. When I hung up the phone for the last time I felt the release as I knew the baggage was carried away. I turned and headed into the house and to the arms of someone who mattered more to me than the hurt I was hanging onto.

Everyone, meet Jim - he is the one you have been reading about cryptically on my posts of late. He is a mountain among men. He has a quiet strength and resolve to him. He is a Godly man and so loving. He reminded me of what normal feels like, he has returned laughter to my life and peace to my heart. He is a father of two who understands the loss of a long marriage, the trials of letting go of a toxic relationship and the strength it takes to release yesterday and embrace today.

Today is the day that is new, he is the man who gives me butterflies and magic. He is the man who helped me bridge the chasm. He is amazing. I am not sure where we are walking in the grand scheme of things, but I am grateful that he is walking beside me right now with hands strong enough to hold me yet gentle enough not to hurt me.

Sunset

It is sunset, can you see it?
Although the night is near,
the colors are warm and comforting.

It is sunset, can you feel it?
Although darkness is making its way
it is a reminder that the sun will come again tomorrow.

It is sunset, can you hear it?
The quiet of the ending of one day
but not the ending of all those ahead.

It is sunset, won't you take my hand?
And sit in friendship past the brilliant colors
Into the cooling night ahead.
It will be sunrise again soon....

HJR

I just want to say thank you, for the little things that are so unexpected and unfamiliar to me. Driving 20 minutes to ensure that I will have my coffee, checking my tires because you don't want me to drive home in any peril. Never letting me pull out my wallet, insisting on even the smallest purchases being covered by you and not letting me wiggle when you mean you are doing something.

Thank you for listening to me..for really listening to the words I speak from my heart and for understanding where I am and supporting me and being completely o.k. with my honesty. You are the pillar of support for me in these days of confusion and hurt. We really are the mirror of each other.

I just want to say thank you, for the "little" things which to me are the very biggest things of all. You go out of your way to ensure my comfort and happiness and it really means the world to me.

M

The Last Few Steps

Sometimes right before we leave, pulling away into the night, we have to stop and re-trace those last few steps.

On the other side, sometimes before we lock the door we have to open it again for a moment and step back towards that connection.

Sometimes, those moments coincide and magic happens.

Hanging On To Every Word

I was thinking this morning about why we hang on to things that are no longer of use to us or give us comfort or have outlived usefulness in our lives. Why do we feel it necessary to keep things in order to re-visit or to remind ourselves of what was the truth, or who a person really was?

Are we so untrusting of ourselves and our memory that we need to have a dead sea scroll of the past events, recorded for posterity and clarity? I believe hindsight is 20/20 and there are rose colored glasses that we put on when looking behind us at what was.

It is precisely those glasses that distort our vision of things far away from us now. Keeping the scrolls allows us to look at things up close again - and see them for what they really were. It keeps the truth in full-focus.

Happy post Valentines Day everyone!

Mellissa

Life Is Like A Box of Chocolate......Covered Cherries!

Chocolate covered cherries are one of my most favorite things in the whole world and have been given to me each birthday and Christmas since I was ten years old.

This is the first time they have been given to me in celebration of another holiday and it made me very happy.

Joy really is in the little things. Thank you.....

Mellissa

Oh Those Hiccups

Man, I am sooo tired today. Got myself a case of the hiccups and was up with it till 2 a.m. They started off kind of slow around 11 p.m. and just increased until I was so tired I nodded off in the big feather bed. Funny how those hiccups sneak up on you like that!

Off to work with a very large coffee in hand and a small set of luggage under my eyes. Bonne voyage....... ;-) ((snicker))

Ladybug

MOLASSES

Well see - I had this whole mental rant about Molasses going on in my head and was going to apply it in a most smarty pants kind of way to amuse myself, but then I saw this little factoid....

A famous incident involving molasses was the Boston Molasses Disaster on January 15, 1919, in which a large molasses storage tank burst and flooded a neighborhood of Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150.

O.k. that is sooo not funny - but somehow it made me laugh out loud and forget about my rant. I mean can you imagine telling the story about how Uncle Rahbet (Boston accent) died in the Boston Molasses Disaster without cracking up.

I digress - so I will move on with my day. Take care and have a good weekend all!

Mellissa

Petit Vert

There are days when we sit and look around us and everything is monochromatic, mundane, and average. We don't see the magnificence that is right in front of us - or the brilliant shades of color trying to catch our eye.

Take a look around your life today with a set of new eyes - or just focus down a level and find the beauty in something small - it really does make all the difference in the world.