Get on the floor and play

Well hello sweet soul. I promised myself and a host of other witnesses - including a dear friend - that I would post on this here blog this week. And here I am going it. Today. Today. Not just any day, this one. It feels good to be back. SO much has happened. Let me give you a little overview of what’s been happening in this sweet life of mine. I’ll tell you one thing today and more things in the days and weeks to come.

We moved my father and uncle into a skilled nursing facility in April. I share here on this pink page with red words. It feels easy to write about and it was so hard to live. It was and is “brutiful” as the dearheart Glennon Doyle would say. Part brutal. Part beautiful. Having them in the right place at the right level of care in an environment that is so loving and so clean and so beautiful feels so good. Finally. Even though there’s so much sadness in seeing my dad go through what he is going through with the weight of chronic disease hanging over him. Even though I see grandfathers at dropoff and pickup at my kids’ school and it breaks my heart a little each time that mine can’t do that, that he can’t experience that. But he did get on the floor and play with them every single time he saw them - for years - up until he couldn’t. Even when it was hard for him. Even when he dozed off on the floor. And I will treasure all of this always. And I know he will too. And I know they will too. Brutiful tears fall down my face as I write this.

So I ask you: what will you do with the ones you love today? Get on the floor with them. Get in there and show them you love them. Play with them in the language they are playing.

I have often regretted not keeping this blog active during this past chapter of life. As I write this with one sweet exhale I realize I was doing my version of “getting on the floor and playing” that life asked of me at the time. I was driving to neurologists and cardiologists. I was answering emergency phone calls from the assisted living that delivered far less than they said they would. I was navigating legal, financial and family dynamics to move mountains to get them into this new home. And through it all, savoring the sweetness of moments with my sweet dad. And so. Much. More.

Good things, darling.