Saturday morning bliss...

The house is a little too cold for my liking, I turned the heat off too early again this year, I was fooled by spring again. Those two weeks of warmth and sunshine lulled me into a false sense of security, I forgot the basics, I live in Nova Scotia. However the hot tea is helping to warm my hands and my innards. My feet are warming in the knitted slippers and I have stolen the "brother sweater" from Gil's side of the closet and I am wearing it like a hug. I am not always a practical dresser but with age I am learning the subtle art of layering, of not turning up the heat because I am cold. This house has taught me much about warmth. At the moment it is teaching me about silence, how there is no such thing. The hum of the computer, the trickle of the cats water fountain, the keys clicking beneath my fingers. And yet there is such stillness while the cat and the husband sleep, huddled beneath the covers together, sharing their body heat. I wish it could be like this every morning. Mornings like this my fears are squished back into the very back of my mind, everything seems safe and steady. Time is not flying past me at speeds I can't manage. Up early in the gray light of dawn I snuck out with my girls to the market where I enjoyed hot coffee, warm cinnamon buns, and the therapeutic company of girl friends. I came home with a bag laden with breads and cheese and meat and a pervasive feeling of calm, the house still quiet and dark. While I know there are errands to be run today I am certainly in no hurry to break this reverie.

More thoughts!

I saw Michelle yesterday. I held her while she cried. I listened to her anger. I watched her hold it together and be a parent. I watched her breath, blink and exist. And I wonder how the hell she does it? How does she pick herself off the floor? How does she draw that next breath? How does she look in the eyes of her children and not die of a broken heart. Where does she find the strength? Does she hate God because the sun came up today? Because people went and got groceries and walked their kids to school, kissed their husbands good morning and now good night. Because I would die, I would go super nova. I am so sad for her and i have so much respect for her. Friday is going to be such a hard day.

Terrible Day...

I don't even know where to start. I was feeling pretty good today. The sun was shinning and everything was great. Gil and I had breakfast together before we went to work. It was a good day. Then Gil called. He had a call at work from my friends Michelle's mom. It seems that some time last night her husbands car went off the road and he was killed. The news is reporting that alcohol may have been a factor. I don't know if I believe that. What I do know is that Michelle is the same age as me. She has two young children. She is a widow. A widow. How the fuck is that possible? I feel like my faith in marriage not my marriage mind but as a whole. So many people I know are struggling in their relationships. Three couples who were married around the same time Gil and I are separated and or getting a divorce. It hasn't even been TWO years. And now Kevin is dead. and that could happen to anyone. I have been having a huge amount death anxiety since I found my lump but it has been about me. My fears. I know we all are all going to die someday but it scared the shit out of me. I don't know what I would do if I were Michelle. If something happened to Gil I would be shattered. And now I am afraid. I don't want to become one of those people is so afraid they stop living. I don't want that for myself or my family.
I want to be alive in every sense. And I want to be a good friend to Michelle when she needs me. Sometimes I get this whole deer in the headlights going on in times of need. It is a failing of mine as a friend. It has happened more then once and it is not something I like about myself. I would like very much to change that part of me.

And thus it begins...

I know that it is three months until we move but packing started today. It doesn't seem possible that we have been here two and half years. It feels like I was just packing to move here. Of course then I only had three WEEKS to pack. I was SO stressed I thought I was going to explode. I hope that does not happen this time. It is very hard to have all your stuff in boxes and have boxes piled up all around. I love being in a new place, especially this time knowing that is OUR home, but I hate all the hoopla that goes with it. I am also starting to purge, to throw out things that we no longer need, things we need not hold on to, things that are a bigger pain to move then they are worth. We got rid of the big TV that hardly ever works. We also got rid of the 5 disc CD changer that we never even plugged in.
I want to get rid of more stuff but some of it is hard to part with even though it is just weighing me down. I am thinking about taking some of my old journals up to New Brunswick and throwing them in a bonfire. I don't really need them anymore. I used to think I wanted to keep them because I wanted my children to know all about me. But as I get older, as I look back on that me who was so fucked up, who was so lonely and so hurt and so full of rage and I think I don't want my children to know her. I want them to know more about me then I know about my own mother but I want it to be passed through the mom filter first. They don't need to know all the gory details. And I don't have to be be burdened with the memories they contain. What is in there that can help me now, that can make me a better wife, a better mother? No. Plain and simple. There is nothing there that can bring me happiness so when not watch it all burn which frankly will give me great pleasure. I love watching things burn! I think I will also burn the court transcripts and everything related to that and maybe some old letters too. We'll make an event of it. Let this whole thing be a fresh start.

Stuff...

So there has been no resolution about the whole wedding situation but I don't really want to talk about that, it is still to painful and there is so much more going on in my life at the moment.
For example Gil and I bought a house!!! YAY!!!


I am so excited. We don't move until July but I am loving it so much. I have so many plans and dreams. There is so much to do and I look forward to having some time to get things together rather then rush we had last time.
There was a week or so when things were SUPER stressful but over all it has been fun and much easier then planning a wedding. this is going to be the house we call home, where we raise our children, where we grow old together. This is our Home. We are the Richard's of Hilltop Terrace.
I am going to garden and get a dog and paint and dance around.
That is of course providing that the mass I found is not cancer. Yup. I have a mass, the doctor confirmed it and I am waiting to see someone else. I am scared. I admit it. After a few days of Gil being very passive about the whole thing I finally got him to have a real conversation and he acknowledged my fears and his own and we have a plan and it is a good one. I am scared but I am going to keep putting one foot in front of the other. There are moments when I am consumed but fear, when I can't move or breath or call to Gil for help because my voice is gone. I don't know what scares me more the thought of dying of the thought of being seriously ill but both sound sucky. But I will keep trying to think positive. I will focus on my husband and our new house. Until I have cause not to I will keep up with the adoption prep classes. I will continue my volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity. I will look forward to all the wonderful things my life has to offer and maybe this will be a wake up call for me to simplify and prioritize things.
I am pretty tough!