Learning to Celebrate Life Alone

Last year marked my parents being deceased for 25 years. I was 25 when they died. So from this year on I will have lived more years without them than with them. So why does it still feel so crazy to live this version of normal? You'd think I would have mastered going it alone. Nope. I have...

A Tale of Two Chris’

The two most important people in my life share the same name. Chris, my mother and Kris, my daughter. This weekend I pay homage to them both. April 9th would have been my mother's 74th bday, and it also marked my daughter's 1st game playing on a full contact football team... You read that right....

Anniversary Awareness

This week was the anniversary of my mother's transition. I thought about her a lot. More than usual. My thoughts were framed around an episode of "Super Soul Sunday" I watched this Sunday featuring the author of "Wild", Cheryl Strayed. Much of the book is centered around her relationship with her late mother, preceding and after her death. She...

Death; the Ultimate Abandonment.

Many proclaim " how could you leave me?" at loved ones that depart this life. I never said it, but I now know the sentiment was lying right beneath the surface. There isn't a stage of my life where there is not upset around her not being there. A resentment. An anger. A brooding. A...

Finding the Favor of having a Fractured Father.

I have not written anything since Mother's Day, I needed a break, but I couldn't let Father's Day pass. I don't know much about my father, Samuel Lionel Jenkins III. My mother wasn't close enough to his family for me to establish a bond past their deaths. That said, I know my characterization of him...

Another Motherless Mother’s Day

It’s days like this I understand why my blog is necessary. With this advent of social media I, and many who didn’t really have a clue about the pain this day can bring, now get to see just how many people have lost their parent and wish for nothing more than to have the ability...

The Grave Can’t Hold Me

At the end of 2014 I left a career I had for-ev-er. It was something I’d wanted to do for at least 3 years prior. Maybe 5 if I’m honest. There are many reasons I stayed where I was even though I had outgrown it, even though I had bigger dreams and visions, and even...

The Legacy Lives

Last Thursday would have been my mom’s 73rd birthday and I did something I’ve never done in the 25 years I’ve celebrated her birthday without her- I focused out. What do I mean by “focused out”? I decided to think about someone other than myself. I decided to see how I could lend myself to...

Emotional Resurrections and Passovers

This is a holy weekend for many Christians and Jews. Both observances important, living changing, life sustaining, and life giving. For us Christians this weekend we observe Christ's death and resurrection; for Jewish people they observe the Passover... When I was in church tonight I could see, in relation to this blog, how the symbolism of these 2 holy...

Forgiving Our Parents

People who know the story of my childhood are always surprised that I have no animosity towards my father. That didn’t just happen in a day or with a wish. But it didn’t take a lot of work either. It seemed like it happened without me even trying. I guess it happened when I gave...