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Showing posts from April, 2017

Life isn't always a beach~

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  Sometimes it's a swamp or a fire..... You've heard the saying I'm sure, "Life's a Beach!". Well, I am here to tell you, that's not always true. And coming from someone who lives near the beach, you should listen to me. I know this from experience. Sometimes life is a swamp. A wetland of wild things that will eat and destroy you if you aren't careful. Don't get me wrong, I  love the swamp, and in real life you can often find me there. Something about the cycle of life there, and the creatures in it mesmerize me.  Surrounding these swamps sometimes are wildlife management areas.  Driving thru one for my first time, I saw areas with trees blackened from the ground up, with charred ground and little brush around them and thought, "Oh no! There was a fire here!". Well, I was correct, there had been a fire, but it was a "controlled burn".  Controlled burns (also known as prescribed burning), are used in forestry management.

440 days.

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  I am in the last stages of cleaning the bedroom my daughter shared with her medically fragile son Harper. She shared a room in my home with him because this is where they needed to be. We didn't make him a nursery in another room because she didn't want to be out of his sight. Now looking back, I know even if he'd been perfectly healthy, she still would have chosen for that to be the case. Their bond, and love was instant-like nothing I had ever witnessed. I was truly privileged to see these 2 lives intertwined.   In Harper's room, there are reminders at every turn.  I dealt with this same sort of thing last weekend while cleaning my own room. Tiny socks, blankets, outfits and medical supplies. Literally seem to pop out at me from every nook and cranny. It's almost as if he's playing peek-a-boo with me. But THIS room. It's the one where we took turns for countless hours holding him, rocking him, bathing him (which he hated s