Brave

Every morning I stand in the shower after slathering a big dollop of conditioner on my hair (it's so dry these days I wonder why I even bother - maybe I should invest in some "3-Minute Miracle") and count 2 minutes before rinsing it out. After getting dressed I begrudgingly walk back into our bathroom and begin the process of getting ready for the day, all the while lamenting the fact that I'm a girl and I can't just put some crew comb in my hair or throw on a baseball hat and run out the door looking like a million bucks.

Every single day.

Oh, to be a boy, just for the grooming, would be so lovely. I think.

So it was, with this mindset that I found myself so grateful for this cloudy day because that meant one less grooming exercise (that would be the shaving of the legs) I had to complete. Hallelujah! I can have stubble and nobody will care or notice! Life is good.

Aaaaaah. Time to revel in the stubble - for who knows how many sunny days will follow this gloom and I'll have to approach each one of those sunny days with a Lady Bic and a squirt of bath gel in order to get the job done.

And so that was my mindset, until I read about Amanda (with whom I've been a blogging pal for a very long time). Sweet, sweet, talented, wordsmith, wonderful Amanda.

From her Facebook posts, it was apparent something had happened. Something life changing. Breathtaking. Something serious. With trepidation, I read her blog all the way through each beautifully crafted, painful, tear inducing line until the details unveiled themselves. She posted a picture - her laying on a couch surrounded by love in the form of 3 beautiful little girls who bore witness to it all. Her husband offered comments of love and support all over her page. Love, love is all it is - all any one of us ever need.

Please pay her a visit or send good healing thoughts her way. For, it is so easy to get caught up in the mundane, the small, the things that don't really matter - even after going through something so life changing as I just did with my own mother (who has received a big thumbs up from her doctor and won't be needing chemo and oh, how happy we we were to hear that). It's just so easy to slip back into the routine, the tediousness of life and overlook all the joy and love that abounds, surrounds and is present in each and every moment and each and every breath we all take.

Amanda is one of the bravest voices I know.

And she probably doesn't give a hoot if I shaved my legs or not this morning. Which is one of the reasons I've loved reading her blog for these many years.

Does it really matter if my hair is dry, my legs are sasquatched out and I ran out of my favorite perfume weeks ago? No. My life is full. My babies are healthy and love surrounds me each and every day. My husband just brought me a surprise after working 48 hours at the firestation...a new bike (total salvage job)! With a basket (to carry wine, no?) and 3 wheels...it is more than awesome. What the hell do I have to complain about?

Life, it's all that really matters. Let me not forget that.