The Best Cures

First of all, I can’t even begin to tell you how much it meant that so many of you from different facets of my life reached out to show me love and support in response to Thursday’s blog. I wrote that blog Wednesday night and I couldn’t fall asleep until after 2am Thursday morning. Then, I had to get up for work Thursday at 5:30am. So Thursday started out ROUGH. I got to work, kept my head down and summoned what little energy I had to get my job done. About 20 minutes later I received an instant message on my work computer from a young angel-friend, Amy, who is in a different department. She sent two lovely memes with a sweet little note. One said “Good Morning” with a picture of a row of Adirondack chairs on a beach. The other one was a quote from the movie ‘The Help’ which I embedded in the blog. That quote was my favorite part of the movie and it always moved me to tears. I was touched and immediately decided to forward both memes via instant message to another co-worker friend that I knew was also struggling. I told Amy that I was passing along her memes and she replied she’d read my blog that morning and wanted to send me some extra love. I was surprised. I was aware Amy knew of my blog and had read it before, but she’s not on Facebook so that meant she went to the blog site on her own. Later that morning while on break another friend asked me if I was doing ok because she’d read my blog too. As tired and exhausted as I was, both of those interactions lifted my heart and spirit. After work, I went straight to a women’s 12 step meeting that I had not been to in a very long time. It was great. I even went to Denny’s afterward for some food and fellowship after the meeting. At that point, I’m not sure how I was upright and coherent but I made it home and promptly went to bed.

Friday morning it was back to work. I was unusually focused and productive. It’s casual dress on Fridays and there is a relaxed atmosphere, but I got quite a bit of work done. At the end of the day, I headed over to Happy Hour for a friend’s birthday. I don’t normally do Happy Hours on a regular basis for obvious reasons, but I make an exception for special occasions. This was one of them. I had a fabulous time blowing off steam. My Lydia Lolabrigida, who’d retired earlier this year was there, which lifted my spirits to no end! We got a little loud and the manager had to ask us to keep it down since they were a restaurant too. Then a few of us went outside to get into some shenanigans with a donkey. Ah good times, good times… 

I left Happy Hour in time to get to a Friday night meeting I don’t usually attend. I walked in 10 minutes late but was hailed and greeted with the same loud, raucous enthusiasm I received at Happy Hour. It made me smile as I flipped my friends off for disrupting the meeting and calling undue attention as I walked to my seat. But hey, that’s how my spiritual kin roll. It felt amazing to continue to connect with this community that is my family. Listening to and sharing our collective experience, strength and hope. All with love, affection, and acceptance for each other. I did what I said I needed at the end of  my Thursdays blog: I adjusted expectations and put in a little more effort in hopes of feeling a bit better the next day. It reminded me of that Irish proverb, though not necessarily in the same order. Of course, there was also the love that came my way.