Smooth(er) Sailing
365 days, countless crying episodes, hours and hours and hours of reflection, thousands of words written and a few thousand more spoken, hundreds of hugs given, and yes, about a million beers ago, my dad died. I can't believe it's been an entire year. But as my brother said this morning, I can't believe it's ONLY been a year. It seems like a different life. I expected this to be a long, emotional trip around the sun and it certainly lived up to that expectation. In a major way. What I didn't expect were a multitude of silver linings. As I find myself a lot less rough around the edges than I was when this journey began, I'm able to see the bright side more clearly. I grew to appreciate my children even more than before as their light and joy brought me comfort and happiness, even on my saddest days. I gained a much deeper understanding o