personal

Baby brothers

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My younger brother was in a minor car accident this evening. He is fine but his truck is messed up pretty good. He called me to come help and I’m glad I was able to be there.

We haven’t always gotten along, my baby brother and I. Apparently when our Mom brought him home from the hospital, I was not too pleased that he wasn’t a little sister.

We are all grown up now and I realize the value in having not just a brother, but specifically him.

I am grateful it was just a minor car accident that helped me remember that.

Simple decisions are not always easy

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There are times in our lives when we are faced with a decision that on the surface is simple but the ripples are not always easy to ride out. For me, most of those kinds of decisions come as a parent.

I was reminded of this when one of the women I not only work with but admire made the decision to take a break from her career to focus on her daughter who is facing some significant physical challenges. While the decision to do it and take care of her daughter was a no-brainer, my friend will still be facing quite a change in her own life that may not be easy to get through at first. She likes her job, is good at it and definitely provides value to our organization. I didn’t ask, but judging by the tears when she told us she was leaving, she is also fulfilled by her work.

I’m sure she would agree with me that nothing is more fulfilling than raising the children we love, but when we also find something that fulfills those other parts of our being, it is not always easy to leave that behind. Even if only for a little while.

I would like to espouse my views on how our civilization today is at a critical juncture wherein the genders are experiencing new levels of introspection resulting in more conflicted parents and workers. Women are rebounding back from the workforce into motherhood later in life causing a tidal wave of emotions on their choice – whichever that may be. Men are staying home with the children in greater numbers than ever before resulting contradictory feelings between generations of presupposed social mores and the natural pull towards their own offspring.

However, for my friend, this is much more personal and localized and I’m not sure I care how the rest of civilization would deal with it.

I would bet she doesn’t either.

Warning – discombobulated post

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There is nothing more important at this moment than sleep.

After not sleeping almost at all last night due to a late dosage of Allegra-D and a four-overtime win for the Dallas Stars, I can honestly think of nothing else but sleep.

I can barely type.

(I was able to stay awake through Dancing with the Stars – Go Christian! Way to dance through the pain!)*

Why bother to write a post at all, then? Why not only allow myself to just close my eyes and drop into unconsciousness and in the process not inflict my apparent lack of faculties onto you, my oh-so-new-readers?

Simple – two reasons: I made a promise to myself to attempt to write something every night in the hopes of building momentum and creating confidence in my commitment. And I have power in my voice which is, in this case, expressed digitally.

My power does not stop because no one reads it. My power is not weakened if it is barely, remotely related to a Pulitzer’s seventh cousin, eight times removed from my friend’s half-sister’s step uncle’s parakeet.

I have strength in power even when the only beneficiary is me.

I have power still even if it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

The sense is in the effort to remain a voice of power in any form available.

*Please note: this post contains a confession of a secret obsessive vice – DWTS. For future reference, all judgements against the author are respectfully requested to be given a bit of slack. It has been clinically proven that often we do not chose and cannot control that which we obsess over. Plus, I don’t have many vices left!