My Social Media-less Life

Today marks 8 years since my dad died. It wasn’t a hard day in that I was sad all day… I was less talkative than usual and I’m sure my mom was slightly concerned, but I promise that wasn’t the biggest issue.

I even woke up today and one of my first thoughts was, “Oh yeah… that’s today.” But it wasn’t in a well-I-guess-I’m-going-to-be-sad kind of way. Just in a this-day-could-go-many-ways-but-I’ll-take-the-best-route-by-just-keeping-to-myself kind of way.

A lot of things were “the issue” about today; I have cats to take care of, the chickens I’m checking on this week are starting to get restless being in their little coop all day, I have long-time friends from out of town here and I definitely need to say hello, if only for a few hours. Oh, and it’s the start of my menstrual cycle.

In general, it was a mostly normal day that turned into “shutdown” mode. I had the lady who is The One Big Exception text me and I literally left her on read for 3 hours before I responded. Thankfully, she’s extremely understanding, but that’s just not the way I roll usually.

Shutdown mode = when a day seems to become too stressful to handle, I take it minute by minute and completely ignore anything that is not an immediate and pressing matter.

One of those immediate and pressing matters was “will I really go see these out-of-town friends?”

I wasn’t sure I really wanted to only because I hadn’t been back to check on the cats and the chickens had taken a lot longer than I expected them to since the oldest one was bullying the youngest one and I hate bullies in general… but chickens would literally kill each other if left to their own devices. Since I am ultimately responsible for their well-being, at least until Friday evening, I am a bit concerned about if they will all survive until then.

So anyway, I was about to head back to check on the cats and just forget about going to see the friends when I went west instead of east on the highway ramp and the Lord basically told me “You’re going to see these friends tonight.”

You know what actually helped the most in going to see these friends?

Seeing my nephews and niece.

They were the only “small” children there the entire time I was there and of course it was a new environment with all adults. The host of the out-of-town friends pulled a few footballs out of his coat closet (he has grandchildren of his own) and suggested the kids go outside and play. Naturally, Auntie went out with them.

They would’ve been fine on their own with the host, but I mean… he was hosting. I wasn’t going to make him stay outside with my nephews and niece when my brother and sister-in-law were there to see the friends as well and my brother has had a huge, years-long, soft spot for this friend and his ministry.

Eventually the host did go back inside and I was left with my nephews and niece in a new environment, where we just did what we always do when we’re together: we had fun.

I finally looked at my watch and realized I needed to leave since I had been there for 2 hours and that was 1.5 hours longer than I had originally wanted to be there. And then I also realized… I wasn’t in a funk anymore.

“Did playing with my nephews and niece really bring some form of healing to my day?” I asked myself as I drove away, sad that I couldn’t stay longer.

I think the answer to that question is, yes. Yes, it did.

As I’ve gone on with my night, I have come to the conclusion that, if it hadn’t been for my staying at the host’s house for as long as I had, I wouldn’t have been able to see my family and I would have left probably just as down as I was when I got there.

It’s funny how the Lord will pull you out of a funk in some of the simplest ways possible.

Anyway, just wanted to share with you all tonight. 🙂