Family Ties

I have to start this one off by saying, "whew". Father's Day is over and I can say, this has been the easiest one so far. I got my cry out early and then I had a really fun day with my friends. I actually had a great weekend with my friends. I saw my best friend Friday & it was so much fun. I miss seeing her, hopefully we can make more time for that. Saturday we went to a very fun party (as all Gaskey parties are). Sunday we boated around Lake Lewisville & hung out with the Fuller's & Reiter's. I didn't stop by the cemetery; I didn't need to for some reason. I thought about my Dad all day, but I had some sort of peace about it this year. Much of my life has turned from heartache to happiness since Kaitlyn moved here. It was so hard being states away, but now that she is here it is all a distant memory.

The pain of loosing my Dad still stings every day, but it is a different kind of pain now. I would describe it as a scar that has finally healed over. It will always be there and I will always think about it. But it is starting to heal and soon I hope I can look at it with true fondness and without such debilitating pain. I am starting too, the path to true healing is being paved out. I thank Kaitlyn for that, among so many things.

Moving on - today's blog is about family ties. It's no secret that my family life is... complicated. It's not fair to pinpoint one family member or one family incident that attributes to it's current standing. It is just, complicated. It bothers me to say "They are my family, so I love them". It bothers me because if I were describing my two close groups of friends I would say, "I love them, so they are my family". If I was in a crisis situation and I had to pick five people to call, not one would be a member of my own family. It makes me sad & I hope it's not always like that for us. I hope somewhere down the road my family can repair itself.

But if not, I consider myself so very lucky for the friends that I have, that I consider to be my family. They all know who they are, I don't have to tell them. But I wanted to write this to make sure they all know just how grateful for them I am. Every difficult situation I have faced in my life has been made easier because of them. If they didn't know it before, they should know it now. I love each of them for giving me blessings in my life, and I can only hope that they would say the same about me. I hope everyone has people they can say this about in their life. I hope everyone feels the blessing of a loving friendship in their life. It can carry you through anything.

So this one is dedicated to my friends. I love each of you & I thank you for being you. You are all awesome in your individual ways & I hope you know how wonderful you all are!  <3

P.S. - Tune in later this week, I am sure my sarcastic nature and humorous words will be coming back to me :)