You taught me how to love.
You taught me how to work.
You taught me how to fight for what is right.
You taught me everything I know about Politics.
You taught me to respect God and my Faith.
You taught me to cherish Family and the time we have together.
But most importantly, you continue to teach me, and I continue to learn.
I love you, Daddy.
Happy Father’s Day!
The weather outside is warm and breezy. Perfect, non-humid, enjoyable. If every day could be like this blissful Saturday, I truly believe it would be Heaven on Earth.
But then I realize that not everyone in this world has it as good as I do. Children are being abused and I’ve been oblivious to it all. I’ve been swimming in my own chaotic current of life, but my definition of chaos is like paradise compared to what others go through. I have to thank the Queen for opening my eyes a little wider. I was furious when I heard about this. Click that link with caution if you can’t handle tragic, horrid news stories.
The women responsible for abusing that 5-year-old boy should be tortured horrifically. How dare they torture a child! What nerve! They must be punished. Death is too good for these wretched women. They deserve to have their finger and toenails pried off one by one, they deserve to be burned with cigarettes and hung from door fames and beaten immensely.
Oh, I know. Two wrongs don’t make a right. It’s not my place to decide the fate of those women. I get that. But I was so angry I threw up. I’m still so angry. I’ve cried for that young boy for several hours. I know my tears can do nothing to help him. That young boy has been physically and emotionally devastated. His spirit has been broken, yet somehow he fought to live. He is alive . God be with him….and with all children in this world who suffer at the hands of evil.
No one deserves to suffer in such a way. No one.
Short, Long, Curly, Straight
My hair wears many styles.
Today it’s tangled.
(I’d show you a picture, but it would scare you silly.)
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Stop over to the Imperfect Parent if you haven’t already (as in yesterday, when I should have linked my post. What can I say? Life is getting the better of me these days), where I talk about ways to ask your boss for a raise. I’ve never asked for more money, but many ladies I know are considering it. I’d love to hear your advice!
Have you seen this video yet? New Kids on the Block – Summertime (I can’t figure out how to embed it, so click over if you dare!) It’s quite good, but it also shows me that maybe somethings haven’t changed. Still babe magnets, 20 years later.
Happily Ever After. Every little girl dreams of living those words. From the moment we read Cinderella, we imagined that our Prince Charming would ride on his beautiful white horse and whisk us away to his castle in the clouds. But, as we grow up our fantasy quickly diminishes to reality and we realize the fairy tale we envisioned doesn’t always happen as perfectly as we hoped.
That isn’t to say that Happily Ever After doesn’t exist. We all remember meeting our soulmates, and how good our relationships were in the beginning. We cherished every kiss, every touch, and hung on each other’s every word. During courtship we went out of our way to care for the other person.
The romantic phase of marriage, that post honeymoon feeling that all the world is in love, you remember it, don’t you? I vividly recall those blissful moments in my marriage; long walks in the park, lazy days of lounging in bed on a Saturday morning, curling up on the couch to watch bad TV with not a care in the world. The only priorities in our lives were each other.
Fast forward a few years, add a baby or two and suddenly new demands are placed upon us. And let’s face it, who has time to be romantic when a screaming little person needs to be fed or changed? I’m not saying children are to blame for mediocre relationships, but when such a huge transition occurs it’s only natural to neglect each other little by little.
Why did we lose the magic in our marriages and relationships, and how do we get it back?
I was reading the book Relationship Magic: The Secret to Happily Ever After, which author, Dr. Edythe Denkin, PhD sent for me to check out, and I was amazed with the clever “fairy tale” approach she uses to help couples return to that state of bliss we loved so early in our relationships. I’m not a big fan of “self-help” books, but Denkin’s unique style was nonabrasive and her advice is easy to absorb.
Using fictional characters James and Cinda, the prince and princess of a faraway kingdom, Denkin highlights the beginning of their fairy tale romance that gradually dissipates to a disillusioned marriage. The prince and princess each have their own perception of how their marriage “should be,” and with the added responsibilities of children, keeping a household, work stresses and the mundane of day-to-day life, they begin to feel helpless. As each partner grows and changes, they start to resent the relationship, yet cannot find the way to express how they feel to each other.
Using the techniques of Imago Relationship Therapy, Denkin takes the reader on a journey through the marriage of James and Cinda while learning how to abandon our own relationship fears and unconscious behaviors we learn in childhood. Denkin believes that we learn to love our partners by watching how our parents loved each other, and that sometimes these examples do not work in our own relationships.
While reading this book, I began to put my own marriage into perspective and began to see how easy it can be to allow our relationships to erode as we focus on other priorities and personal needs. I honestly believe my marriage is happy and healthy, but after seven years (and being together a total of ten years) I can see how important it is to reinforce the foundation of my relationship.
At the end of each chapter, Denkin lists questions for the reader to ponder, such as “Do you remember the way acted and reacted towards your partner during the romantic phase of your marriage?” and “Do you feel responsible for your partner’s happiness?”
Once I began to truly answer these questions, I was amazed to learn that even the most solid of marriages still need to be nurtured and cared for. Denkin’s approach to bringing the magic back into our relationships is so down to earth I couldn’t help but love her book.
My favorite question she asks is “What is your prescription for happiness?” I’m still pondering that one…but I believe it begins with a loving relationship and a rock solid foundation.
For more information about this book, click here.
