Keep Calm And Write On

 I have a love-hate relationship with a Million Little Things. It's good storytelling, but also...how many tragedies can one circle of friends possibly go through?  The goal of the show seems to be to relate to as many people and their struggles as possible. So I was thrilled when one of my own struggles, the effects of TBI, became a storyline. Regina sustains a concussion during a BLM protest, and in the episodes following, we see her have memory problems, which in turn begin affecting her career, and a quest to find what's wrong. We see her mother advocating for Gina in a doctor's office the way many of us who are chronically ill or disabled have had our loved ones advocate for us. It was refreshing. It also paved the way for an interesting storyline pursuing the changed dynamic between Gina and her husband Rome, who throughout the series has been the partner who received more support. How would Gina balance caring for herself and supporting Rome? This story had such pot...

 I've seen a lot of loss. And I know people who have seen much more. I've grieved in ways I'm not yet comfortable blogging about, but my God is faithful and he's placed a lot of people around me to support and continually point towards himself.  Sometimes it feels as though I've lived so much LIFE in the past few years it's difficult to even wrap my mind around it all.  In the past three years, I've said goodby to my great aunt and my nana, I graduated college, got my first Big Girl With A Degree Job, moved across the country, started online dating, met someone, Married him (!!) had a baby,  and moved BACK across the country.  Not mentioned is the emergency gallbladder removal, COVID related family emergencies, and more.  Sometimes it all seems like too much. There's been very little time to rest, and absorb. Process. Grieve, move on. Accept.  I quit writing because what was the point in trying to find ONE thing to write about when there was SO much. E...

 I snapped a picture one day that somehow looked heckin artsy and like I’m someone cool who has it all together.  But behind the selfie, what you didn’t see is the way I frowned at my postpartum belly flab in the mirror, the way I agonized over finding clothes that flatter the aforementioned postpartum belly flab AND didn’t irritate the 5 then-recent incisions on my abdomen from my gallbladder-ectomy*. You didn’t see the struggle to get my contacts in, and the sore fingers that are the reason 90% of my shoes, including the ones I’m wearing off camera- are slip-ons.  You just see the selfie. And that’s fine if we’re acquaintances from years back or coworkers. But there’s got to be people who see behind the selfies, behind the scenes of the carefully crafted, sterile social media image. Humans are social beings, we were created for community, and Christians, in particular, are actually commanded to fellowship.  "And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some peop...