farewell.

Gram.

She was special.

Not the kind of special that lasts a week and is plastered on every wall, but the kind that only a select few really get to hold close and call their own.

She was no shy bird. She made sure you knew who she was, especially if you were listening to her talented husband preach what she would say was his best message yet. She knew when to boast. But, she was my best kept secret…

 

Gram was special because the minute she met one of my friends or a complete stranger who had wandered into our crazy gathering, she would introduce herself by saying “Hi! I’m Gram! Who are you?” and then proceed to look up at them with an ever so slightly furrowed brow as if she was ready for them to declare themselves unsafe. Once the person in question recovered from this abrupt interrogation and introduced themselves she immediately put her biggest squinty eyed smile on and demanded that they call her Gram from that moment on. No point in arguing.

 

Gram had the best sense of style. And when I say best, I mean I’m pretty sure she was known for wearing one solid color… Blue shirt, blue pants, blue socks, blue shoes. I’m also fairly certain that she had cornered the market on religious and spiritual graphic t-shirts and sweatshirts. We all know what I’m referring to. No one wore the lion and the lamb like she did. Jesus was her homie long before it was popular.

 

One of the things I loved about Gram was her child like approach to love and faith. She loved simply and she loved ardently. The way she saw her father god was one of the purest I have ever known. She knew him. And she knew that He knew her too. She was sincere in her desire to grow in love and become more like jesus. It was simple. It was beautiful.

 

Gram was the one found guilty of introducing me to thedelicately dangerous thing called coffee at least 20 years ago. A beautiful life long love affair that eventually became a career. I will be traveling to Kenya in less than 4 days to visit some coffee farms that my company purchases beans from, and I can’t help but think back to the days that we would spend with gram as children sitting around our little table with out tiny teacups that were being misused for what I think to be a much greater purpose. Breakfast coffee, snack coffee, lunch coffee, snack coffee, dinner decaf coffee, snack… She was the beginning of something that I get to love doing every day. I treasure this.

 

If you knew my grandmother, then you knew how completely smitten with her family she was. She would continually tell me that our family is special and that we’re not like everyone else. It was like a secret that she felt simultaneously guilty yet giddy for saying out loud. I mostly laughed it off and told her its ok if she believes that, all the while thinking that she was ever so slightly crazy and that I had reality in the bag.

The most memorable of these proud moments were usually during family gatherings while we were all joining hands and about to thank god for the food. We’d all be forming a circle, laughing at inside jokes and teasing aunt Kristin about the decorations, and we’d see Grams rocking start and she’d begin to tear up (she was a major weeper). We would get a little quiet,as she would start to cry and go on and on about how great this family is and how amazing each and every one of us was, but eventually we would all begin to laugh and tell her how cute she was… which only made her mad. Mad gram was also a very cute Gram.

 

All of that to say, she was insanely proud of her kids. All of them. There was no stain on her lineage. She saw each one of her children fight through the storms that came their way, and she was their biggest cheerleader. There was nothing, absolutely nothing they could do to lose her love. She was crazy about them. She was crazy about their kids. She was crazy about their grandkids.

 

Last Friday I lost a grandmother, a cheerleader, an ally, and a friend. She was my favorite… She was home. And as I stand here today I am still in denial that she’s actually gone. I am longing to hear her laugh just one more time. I am yearning for her tiny little self to be in my arms just one last time so I can kiss the top of her head just one last time. But I know even that would never be enough. Nothing would ever prepare me for this loss. She is irreplaceable.

 

Gram, you were right. There is something really special about this family. You.

 

We love you. Always.

 

 

This.

Imagine you're standing about three feet in front of me attempting to understand what exactly I'm trying to communicate in that unfortunate moment when words run dry and very little can be interpreted and the best I can do is to use my fumbling hands to act as if compressing the invisible matter inches from my chest while a simple word jumps from my lips much like an irrationally awkward teenager, "THIS!!"

This. It's the delicate string laced through what was, what is, and what one day might be. The feeling that draws and repels me simultaneously. It pulls at my longings and always recalls my fears.

I have no reasonable responses to sell at this nameless mile marker. I violently fight off the comfort I so desperately seek. Residual anger finds my fearful courage and forms the inward rebellion that was born to react spitefully against that which seeks to soothe me.

Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me I've gone too far from home. Tell me I'm so much rougher than you've ever known. Pinpoint my failures and please spell them out to me. I've been itching to collect them for the case I've been building against myself.
Do anything, but please, resist the urge to soothe me.

I've stopped biting my tongue but I swear I'm going to fix that leaky faucet and its slow acrid drip; it just wasn't always like this.

Home; I fear that to have any other soul help in defining it for me would also run the risk of then having it carelessly unsettled. So I'll push familiar from my mind and despise the warmth that tears so tenderly at my ever lone resolve.

Comfort, you must know you terrify me.

Late.

Today I slept late.
Today I woke up to a running start that set a pace that my feet managed to be ever one click behind.
Today I slept late.

Today I felt small.
Today I felt my biggest attempts marked only faintly and on the low place on the wall.
Today I felt small.

Today I thought anxiously.
Today I saw my worry coursing through the grooves in my brain in sixty shades of green.
Today I thought anxiously.

Today I held my tongue.
Today I felt stuck beneath internally muted wonderings.
Today I held my tongue.

Today I was never, but always, alone.
Today I bumped the edge of feeling and realized it'd be a day of very little feeling at all.
Today I was never, but always, alone.

Today I will go to bed late.
Today I will make my queries upon this sleepy eyed concrete and find in fact that it's really not that hard to break.
Today I will go to bed late.

Tomorrow.
Tomorrow I can't sleep late.

Intermission.

It's been over three months since I've written last. I've flirted with the idea of sitting down and loosing the words which sit in the waiting room of my heart, but instead I've prolonged the silence till "pregnant pause" could no longer define it.
Despite all of this I remain hopeful in my pursuit of a more dedicated intentionality with writing... I am blessed to have people in my life who will unknowingly admonish my passivity with their encouragements and continual support.


Fear not;
I have not closed the book on my love affair with words.

True.

You felt like vacation
Like a window opened in another room
Like my favorite pair of well worn jeans
Like the color of a smile in a half remembered dream

You felt like anticipation

You did everything right
Laid your best cards before cynicism could have its way
Winning the edges of my heart till warmth overcame my will to fight

to fight what I could not see
The pain of becoming the girl who's disgrace is feeling a small ache for a man who is suddenly now tied to an internal vow to keep.

You cut me with duty
You burned me with your re-emerging hope for yesteryears tomorrow.
I cannot rival chivalry nor argue with nobility; you've chosen to be true and I cannot help but believe that beauty will follow you for the honor that you've sown.

But I never thought I'd be here.
I was led into a secret grove before the bold lettered "Do Not Enter" was plastered on every tree trunk.
There were no lines that I crossed, yet I am left feeling like I must flee and escape in the dark of the night before the dawn uncovers the shamed whispers of my heart...

Just remember I did not stand in the way when your history reached for your hand and you told me you couldn't stay. I only hope I acted as a bridge that helped you along the way.

That which is joined together let no one separate.
Let no one separate.
Let no one separate.
Let no one separate.
I will not separate.
I did not separate.

Aloud.

Yesterday words crept from my lips and freed themselves before I had the chance to see mutiny in my midst. The thought came out in a quiet hush, but it felt much more like a shout

"I think I'm happy..."

My fears tumbled over one another, dog piling all the reasons why I never should have said such a careless thing out loud.

"What if it's just the weather? What if tomorrow remembers the despair?"

"You shouldn't be happy, you're still so crippled and unsure! There's still so much to work on.. what if you're just avoiding the truth of all the ugly that still lives here?"

"Is that even fair? Is it even ok?"

"You never say it out loud... Don't you know that!? Everyone knows that..."

A handful of words uttered within a square foot space in time and my mind had already retraced its steps and censured the rumors trickling from my heart's moment of blithe.

Something will go wrong, it always does!

I've been weeping at the tombstones scattered across my cemetery of dreams, waiting for a moment to slow my weighted breaths. Hasn't Spring withheld its face, Winter crowding my space, till now?

There's something terribly wrong when the flicker of happiness is scarier than that of harrowing grief.

But here I am and I can't remember the last time I felt like this; my heart swelling much like when the ocean violently kisses the edge of the highest cliff!

Despite being utterly aware of how very unfinished and rough my heart remains, I can't help but be so in love with resting within simplicity and the body of this process. It has induced joy that I've not known for years; smiling in the colorful silence and basking in this peaceful calm.

My life is not without pain or trouble; havoc has burrowed in and claimed its place for a season whom's end I cannot predict. But while there is a very slight chance that I've developed a stomach ulcer due to the anxiety and stress that seems to be preying on my subconscious, I am far more than merely surviving. My heart can be found at ease more often than not.
I've simply decided that I refuse to be defined, and confined, by trauma and chaos.

Instead I will learn what it means to live in simplicity and wonder.
I will relish the little things such as walking to market and buying fruits and vegetables from local farmers, and learning how to cook/prepare said vegetables.
I will listen to new stories and adore the hearts that breathe them, choosing to look deeper than word on the street and the branding mistakes behind them.
I will take the time to enjoy the process of stretching to touch the edges of fluidity, and then the moments when in some cases I may land in solidarity.
I will not fear the threat of possible mistakes, but rather embrace the battles lost and the battles that I will have the privilege to courageously face.
I will laugh often and dance like a four year old at any time of day, because I can.
I will have fun.


I am happy... and I will say it out loud.

On the sixtieth day.

It's been two months since I picked up and tore myself away from Philly and moved back to Lancaster.
Although terrifying at the time, I've been overwhelmed by how wonderful people have been in my return.
When I felt the gentle push to move back to Lancaster and leave the place that I had come to know as home, a huge part of me was devastated. My apartment had been my safe place when every other "home" I had known fell to pieces. I had settled my heart in the warmth and made a home for myself.
Only six months before I moved I had told myself that I'd never move back to Lancaster because it wasn't home anymore. It only felt like a friend that had betrayed me and I wasn't prepared to trust it with my heart anytime soon. I should have known that I'd have to go back to make peace with the pain and anger that it held for me.
It wasn't just what Lancaster had "done" to me, it was who I'd become in a years time and the question of how the new and messier me would fit in the old space I had occupied before in everyone eyes, including mine. I was afraid of not measuring up to even just the old me. I was afraid of being seen in all of my "ugly."

It's been a battle to remember that no man or woman's approval defines me. That my name will be spoken ill of and that it's not always my job to jump up and clear it. I'm learning what it means to live and love abundantly with no need to prove anything. In all of this I think I've actually already made peace with Lancaster... I'm as content as I can be at this point in my journey and taking one day at a time, enjoying the process. I miss my Philly home and community, but I'm at rest where I am for now.

Truly, I can't help but be incredibly full of gratitude for how my needs have been provided for...

I have a warm and wonderful home, living with hearts much like mine; beautifully broken and on the journey of discovery and truth.

I have a job that I absolutely love! I get to do things that I thoroughly enjoy every day and pay my bills doing it. My bosses treat me well and make me feel valued and cared for. My co-workers are vibrant characters who've instantly welcomed me as another misfit in the Square One family.

I have a community that quickly enveloped me, refusing to see me walk alone.

As painful as this years discoveries and truths have been, I've been blessed enough to have people who will love me through it and encourage me to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

I am thankful. True story.