Tag: life

my father’s passing…

I had planned to do a blogging challenge of a post a day for 30 days during the month of August. But I didn’t finish – and that’s okay.

Blogging needed to come to a stand-still for me for a while because my family’s situation – which has been a major factor in my life this whole year – became even more of a priority.

My post last Thursday was written on the day that the decision was made to call in hospice care for my father.

By the next morning, his condition had drastically worsened.

Hospice came onto the scene officially that Friday afternoon. My brother changed his plans to take a week-long trip out west, and instead went to my parents’ on Saturday so that he could be there. Saturday evening my father was transported by ambulance to a lovely and caring in-patient hospice facility in the county where my parents live.

The next evening – a week ago today – early in the evening of Sunday, August 25, my father passed away.

 

My father was 87 years old (a couple of months away from 88)… he’d lived a long life, he’d spent the last many months in a great deal of pain, and I know he’s at peace now.

Thank you to everyone who called, posted facebook comments, and sent emails and messages of condolences and love and support for me and my family.

It means more than I can say.

In memory of my father… with love for him, with gratitude for him…

♥

music and self-care…

My husband I got home a little while ago from a visit with my parents. My folks live an hour away, so it’s not a very long drive but it’s long enough to listen to several songs. We drove, the night muggy from the rain of the day, the windows down to let in the summer air that wasn’t exactly cool but was cool enough not to need the air conditioner going in the car.

And we blasted the radio, enjoying the music as we rode.

Oldies were playing… Gloria Gaynor, Hall & Oates, Billy Joel, the Stones.

I danced in my seat to the fast ones. Sometimes I sang along.

It made me think about the role music plays in my self-care.

I LOVE music. LOVE. All sorts of music, most genres. It can soothe me, uplift me, get me moving, or get me crying.

I’m currently doing some online courses where we get up from the phone or computer or wherever we might be listening, and we dance to music for a few minutes – we do this as a way to help shift the energy, as well as to help integrate and ground what we’re learning. We move and dance to music by Loreena McKennitt, James Asher, and others.

It’s new to me to incorporate music and movement into classes and learning experiences. And I love it.

Music is energy… and music shifts energy.

Music feeds my soul. It nourishes me. It helps me release blocked emotions. It helps me connect more to joy.

That’s why it’s such an important part of my self-care.

♥