https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OORsz2d1H7s
This is something I have done in hard times.
27 years ago my Dad passed away suddenly at the age of 45 when I was a senior in college in the middle of midterms. To this day, I cannot tell you how I drove to the hospital, following the ambulance and then drove home again after the doctors had told us they did everything they could. I remember praying in a waiting room with my Mom, sister, aunt and uncle. I remember other random things from that morning...trying to dial a rotary phone in the trauma room, friends arriving at home, etc. but I have NO recollection of the drive back and forth to the hospital. No residents of Elmwood Park and Melrose Park were harmed by my distracted driving to my knowledge.
I also don't know how I got through the days and weeks after. It was the dead of winter, there was a blizzard the week after. School needed attention, work needed attention. What is the line in Apollo 13?? Failure was not an option.
I went back to work, I learned how to drive in the snow, I went back to school, made up a missed midterm and graduated 4 months later. I got a job, bought a car and life went on...one foot in front of the other.
In 2000, my Grandma passed away while I was out of town. It was sudden. I had a 5.5 hour ride to get home to family. I had a husband not in tune with me or my ties to my family; reason #542864281 why he is my ex husband, more on that later. We made it back and hard as it was...we kept going...one foot in front of the other.
September 11, 2001 dawned as a beautiful late summer day. I am fairly certain anyone reading this who was alive then, knows how it ended. The world changed that day. Thousands lost loved ones. People united, people prayed, mourned, came together and kept going...one foot in front of the other.
In 2003, my first marriage ended. If I am being honest, it probably lasted a few years longer than it should have. It took me a while to come to terms with what I considered to be a failure at life. I don't take failure easy. I picked myself up, reassembled my pride and self esteem, moved home for a bit, lost 65lbs and kept going...one foot in front of the other.
Fast forward to late 2014 and early 2015. I have mentioned the shock of a diagnosis of stage 3 non Hodgkins Lymphoma. It still stops me up short when I think about it. You know the drill by now...I saw doctors, got some hardware installed, battled cancer and survived...all the while putting one foot in front of the other.
Since the election last year, I feel like this country is at a crossroads of sorts. It's clear that there are differing opinions for sure. It's clear that things are stressful, divisive, and contentious.
People are resilient though. We're determined. We are strong. Maybe we agree with what's going on. Maybe not. Things will change; it cannot continue at this pace, at this volume, at this magnitude indefinitely.
Right always prevails over wrong; good over evil.
Love always wins. We will keep going...
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