Month: November 2018

What If It’s Great?

~ Jenna ~ 2 Comments

I couldn’t walk after my dad died. My anxiety was crippling. I thought I was also going to die. The grief had manifested so physically that I could barely get up. Every type of food made me nauseous like I was back in my first trimester of pregnancy. I had to stop breastfeeding my 4-month-old daughter because I had nothing left to give.

It was the lowest point of my entire life, but I’m here. I’m moving. Most days forward, some days back. The path I’m on feels unfamiliar, so in a way it doesn’t feel like mine, even though I know it is.

Today I walked for 45 minutes. I made everyone breakfast. I drove Maisley to preschool. I don’t have to Uber to therapy anymore. I’ve never been more grateful to be accomplishing ordinary daily tasks.

There’s been a shift in my grief after over the last couple of weeks. Discomfort is pervasive, but it doesn’t quite feel like I’m on the Hunger Games anymore; on edge every second of the day wondering when and how grief will strike – a hail storm of anger? A tidal wave of sadness?

Still, everything is upside down.  Red is blue and blue is green. 

My grief has more questions than it does answers. It doesn’t understand, trapped in the limited capacity of my human mind. Why him? Where is he right now? 

Every day of this coming year feels like unchartered territory; random ones like May 15th and special ones like December 25th. What will every day be like without Dad? What will it feel like in the spring and summer?

In therapy today I talked about how I’m a little apprehensive every time my mom calls. What if the tone in her voice makes my heart sink to my knees? 

My world changed on a hopeful, bright blue, Saturday morning. Sorrow fell out of the sky and hit me like an anvil on an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. A part of me had been waiting my whole charmed life for that phone call.

Would it have helped if I had been worried and fearful all morning?

Not one bit.

Whether I expect bad things or good things, things will just happen. Life will continue to happen.  I can feel myself inching toward a shift, because, what if it’s great? What if I expect good things? 

Feeling that positivity and hope start to permeate my perspective feels more genuine than living in the twilight of foreboding joy. 

Anne Lamott said it best: “To have been born is a miracle. What are the odds?”

A First Laugh

~ Jenna ~ 1 Comment

I laughed really hard for the first time since my dad died.

I was sitting in the kitchen doing some writing while Maisley was pretending to nap. Our part-time nanny and friend, Jordan, peered around the corner and whispered, “Oh you gotta see this.”

I got up to find Maisley standing in the hallway, butt naked, proud and smirking, anxiously awaiting my reaction. She had climbed out of bed, de-robed, de-diapered, and scaled the “safety gate”.

I couldn’t help myself; I lost it in full blown, slap-happy laughter. 

I laughed without holding back. I laughed mindlessly, deep in the present moment. I felt something new inside of me, sparked in that moment of joy.

Motherhood and grief is a wild collaboration. On one hand, it helps me to have these tiny distractions of blissful naivety. On the other, it’s hard to feel everything I want to, when I want to, with obligations that come first; like keeping both kids alive while Maisley has Coura two inches up, off the ground by the ankles.

I’m so happy my girls got to meet my dad, but my heart aches for future memories we will never make and dreams, unfulfilled.

Some days I wake up in hope and positivity. Others in sorrow and angst. After every tidal wave of grief – weak, tired and with tear stained cheeks – a gentle, but firm voice speaks very clearly in my mind: Get up. Keep going.

I have to get up everyday for those girls. I have to keep moving.

It feels good to smile and see the light through the cracks.

Crickets

~ Jenna ~ 2 Comments

This electric nervous energy has me levitating lately. Everything around me is just out of reach. Gravity is nowhere to be found and I’m trying to grasp and hang on to anything I can.

Sitting in a state of grief has opened me up to smaller nuances and things that I might not have noticed before my dad died. I am on high alert, paying close attention to any signs of him that may appear. 

So far, all I’ve been hearing are crickets.

My mom and dad had pesky little crickets in their house when they first moved in together 30+ years ago. Right before my dad left for his very last bike ride on September 29th, my mom yelled something like, “We need to get rid of these crickets in the garage!”

Since the day my dad died, crickets have been showing up at just the right time.  At first we didn’t want to believe it, hoping for something a little more glamorous than a cricket as his spirit animal.  A hummingbird perhaps? Shooting stars?

But the crickets are prevailing, in little, pay attention or you’ll miss it kind of ways.

At the end of the night at Lindsey and Brandon’s rehearsal dinner, the lights went out for a scheduled blackout and then silence; crickets. I came home for the first time after he died and what was chirping in our garage?

The crickets are also emerging in bold, clear as day kind of ways.

I had started a class on Tuesday nights in early September, a course on unblocking creativity through the workbook, The Artist’s Way. The week after my dad died I couldn’t get myself to go. I couldn’t drive anywhere, let alone think about anything other than my dad. The following two weeks I kept wanting to go, but didn’t have it in me.

Finally, I went. I was anxious, but looking forward to it, as the class had been a breath of fresh air every week. New people with unique perspectives, wild imaginations and a zest for life.

I walked in early and sat down next to our instructor. A few minutes into our conversation she paused and said, “There’s that cricket again! It’s been here for the last three weeks and we can’t seem to figure out where it is.” Three weeks, which means, the week I stopped coming, my dad had been holding court at the Soul Flow Art Studio in my place (and let me tell ya, that wouldn’t normally be his scene).

At first I thought she was joking because it was so perfectly orchestrated. I couldn’t stop smiling. He’s still guiding me, telling me to keep going, keep writing, and to stay on this path. I felt comforted. A quiet nudge, just as he would do. Thanks Dadio, I see you.

Crickets seem to suit him. We can only hear him in the quiet. He is peaceful, unassuming. He brings us good luck. He always used to get so mad at us for talking over each other a million miles a minute so he implemented a talking stick. Now he is still telling us to be patient and listen.

Yesterday I had this overwhelming sense and understanding that I now have my dad right next to me every day. Like a four leaf clover in my back pocket, Dad is with me through every big decision, every cheers, every airplane ride, and every down day; all of it. Our relationship is different, but maybe it will be even stronger somehow than before.  There’s no calling or texting, he’s just there. He’s got my back, him and God, and that makes me stand a little taller.

When I start paying attention, I feel myself slowly drift back to Earth. There is magic in the quiet. Crickets.