Tuesday 29 December 2015

Post holiday ramblings

The holiday season is almost over and I am still feeling overwhelmed. I’ve done the family get togethers and the parties with friends, the travelling, the shopping, opening ond oohing over gifts. Now this week it’s catch up time. I have dentist appointments, hair appointments, cleaning, planning our vacation, new years eve parties and work to do as well as preparing for my new job that starts next week. I look at my to do list and wonder what the hell I’ve gotten myself into. The kids and hubby are off school and work and running around underfoot making noises and generally being themselves. Which normally I love, but it isn’t very conducive to writing time. I guess I need to become Dory and “just keep swimming.” One step after another. What gets done will get done.

Add into the holiday rush the grief that inevitably comes around this time of year. Forcing a smile when those you are missing aren’t here can be the hardest thing. I’ve lost so many relatives, so many who I can’t see any longer. I still find myself turning to say something to them. Or thinking I should call them. Or wishing they were here to see this, or that. Those emotions aren’t fleeting, they are there every moment of every day, but they seem more intense around this time of year. It makes focusing on the here and now very difficult. Is there a solution for this? A cure for grief? I don’t believe so, but I think we need to take those feelings in and let them go again. If not for our own sanity than for the sake of those around us. We need to feel them, but not dwell. And in the thread of not dwelling I will move on…

I’ve just signed up for my first ever blog tour, for Liquid Fire. Beginning February 10th and running until the 24th. Don’t ask me what that means, I’m not quite sure yet. I am sure I will figure it out though. It’s getting pretty damn exciting, I can’t wait until everyone can read Lee’s story. She’s quite the character – a strong woman who has run into some bad luck along with being thrown into a world she knows nothing about. Lee is the epitome of todays woman, unwilling to take any crap from anyone, confident in herself and unwilling to let anyone tell her what she should be. Add into that a potty mouth and a heart of gold and we have a character that we can all relate to.


The one thing I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is my “tribe”. The word has been bandied about in all sorts of meme’s and on facebook recently. A tribe, for those disconnected from the google, is the group of people one chooses to surround themselves with. I love my tribe. It consists of both friends and family.


The friends I have are creative, supportive and wonderfully delightful to have conversations with. We have gone from drinking buddies (with many nights at bars dancing and laughing) to having breakfast and coffee dates. I refuse to think of it as getting old. We have changed our circumstances and the way we socialize with one another, but a true friend can be there in the quiet moments as well as the loud obnoxious ones. I am one of the lucky ones, being over forty and still having a wide social group of friends is a blessing. The friends I write about are similar to the ones I have in real life. The conversations they have and the way they get along are very much evident in my everyday life.

The family part is a little more complicated. I love my family, and while I may not have chosen them I enjoy the time I spend with them. It’s very different from the relationships I have with my friends. We joke around, usually at each other’s expense. Making fun of ourselves is a great past time that prevents any of us from getting too big of a head. We are all very different, but it’s like pieces of a puzzle. While each piece is unique they all fit together to create a whole picture.

Mr. Gloria, is the biggest part of my tribe. With him, as with no one else I can be myself. He accepts me, he makes fun of me, he drives me and inspires me. He is my other half.

Thing one and Thing two, are also becoming more and more a part of my tribe. I am incredibly proud of how they turned out, the people they have become. We’ve raised people that we want to be around and there is nothing more perfect than that.

Have you thought about your tribe and what it means to you? How do you define your tribe?

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