Fifty Years

I woke up this morning and realized that today would have been my parents' golden anniversary. Since my father has been gone for the past five and a half years, it was an ordinary day, full of daily cares and plans and worries, yet slightly bittersweet underneath. Life has a cruel way of going on without the ones we love, even when we desperately wish it would stop. This anniversary makes the landscape of my life seem a bit bare, like a stretch of desert with a bit of tumbleweed blowing along. The empty spaces are never really filled, except perhaps with longing. And tomorrow is still another day.

Staying Focused

It's Day 15, and I'm starting to wonder if I'm getting a little obsessive. It's hard to stay focused on a goal when other priorities keep muscling their way to the top of my list. I am supposed to be finishing a writing project, but instead I end up in the pediatrician's office staring down two monster Q-tips. My daughter and I are both alarmed. She's smart enough to know what Miss Nurse is planning to do with those monster Q-tips, and I'm smart enough to realize immediately that the week is over. It's Wednesday morning, and I can look forward to another two and a half days with a germy, snotty, cranky, hyperactive toddler.
I'm organized so I get my little bit of writing work done. I'm stirring the pot and the concotion I'm creating isn't growing cold. But all my creative energy is focused on sanitizing any surface my adorable little germ factory might touch with her wet, sticky fingers. Sometimes life is like that. I just have to stay focused.