I was watching a sitcom of a housewife where her husband began to act strange, wearing bracelets and bacon socks. When she asked him what was going on he described his fear of not living and doing something more with his life after he experienced losing a colleague who had the same routine everyday and never lived beyond his office or did anything adventurous. He just died living a meager existence.
Last night I read the news of heaven getting an angel who had fought a hard and painful fight. While attending a fundraiser I spoke to a friend and old coworker who has a son fighting a fight with an unpredictable and arduous uphill battle. Kids cancer fucking sucks and is a horrible, horrible monster.
I was at the local Goodwill store and saw a friend who is going through a divorce which, I had no idea about hers and she had no idea about mine. I have multiple readers who have shared personal story after personal story about how they are starting new chapters of their lives due to separation or divorce and have (rightly so) a significant amount of anger and hostility towards their ex’s. Parents are neglecting their children for their diseases and addictions. Which straight up pisses me off.
The fucking world still has the audacity to spin. However, “their worlds” feel halted, surreal, painful, with all the phases of grief with an extended dash of anger and hostility (surely this is not just me). Someday acceptance may follow our ability to have tolerance for our new lives.
But at what cost to our mental well-being? For some (maybe me a little) our livers? How about our relationships with others, they’re definitely suffering. My poor mom…luckily (and she will tell you this) I’ve always been a “cat” kid. Meaning, “when I want you I’ll come to you, when I don’t want you leave me alone!” (Which clearly is a problem behavior) But our humans suffer.
Luckily, we keep everything inside and stuff that negative shit way down so we don’t have to feel it, right? No. We can stuff it, but it still comes out and up. So what can we do to survive? We talk about it. We work to not stigmatize the pain and suffering we are experiencing so we don’t have to feel completely alone.
I’m not saying tell every person you meet your troubles and hardships. I’m saying have someone you trust and feel safe with to share the worst parts of your life with. I share in this blog, but I share the horribly painful and specific details with very few. Honestly, I’m not sure many could handle what’s in my head.
But writing is helpful. Today it’s my bacon socks. Tomorrow my bacon socks may be something bigger! I got a tattoo a week ago-that day, the tattoo was my bacon socks. Some days getting out of bed is my bacon socks. What is your bacon socks??
Life is unpredictable, sometimes scary, sometimes painful, sometimes beautiful, sometimes inspiring, sometimes, sometimes, sometimes…We can wallow in our losses and gains or we can take each day by the bacon. Kiss the kiss, hug the hug, drink the drink, and jump the jump! Find and wear your bacon socks!
This is for the babies, for the survivors, for the grieving, for the heartbroken, for you. Let me know if you need bacon socks!
Whiskey Momma 