I sat down to write this past Friday after work and found myself thinking about the past week and what happened over the course of those 5 days and came to the realization that not much of note took place… well besides living… plain and simple… life just happened. Nothing major rocked my little world… no emotional breakdowns to draw from… no missing clothing or prison life mishap to tell you about… just life. Which I then I smiled to myself and thought… that in itself is kind of cool.
That in this environment… my life doesn’t stop. Yes – it stops in the way that I can no longer move forward in all the facets that I wish I could… out in the real world. But my life… in this new reality… is still in full swing and sometimes in life… you have weeks in which you wake up… go to work… work out… eat… sleep and repeat. And that is exactly what went down for me this past week. And in many ways… I am grateful for that. I am grateful that even in prison… there will be times when I am not battling some internal or external issue… I am able to simply just “be” and within that state of simplicity… I am able to reflect on the things within my world that make me smile…
I smile because my boys are with their Super Grandma this weekend and every time I get to talk to them on the phone… they are bubbling with excitement and joy… telling me about their days and adventures… I can close my eyes and “hear” the smiles on their faces even though I am not able to see them. It fills me with gratitude and provides unbelievable comfort knowing that they are good… they are smiling and laughing and playing… and that is all I can ask for.
(So – I wrote the above Friday evening and ran out of time on the computer so needed to circle back over the weekend but then I had something that really made me smile happen which made the whole “not much of note took place during the week” not so valid anymore but I figured I would keep what I previously wrote anyway and fill you in from there…)
Normal week turned extraordinary when my Brother In Law and my niece came to visit me on Saturday! Ahh – the power of familial familiarity… really has the ability to boost every aspect of life in here. I was able to spend 2+ hours with them… talking… laughing… sharing… just being together… in person… and with contact visits back now (there was no contact during visits prior to 3 weeks ago due to COVID)… I was able to hug them! I was able to pick my niece up for the first time in over a year and squeeze her (probably more than she would have liked but… Uncles can do that 😉 )… I was able to hear about their adventures at Sea World and Lego Land… her soccer games and plans for the summer. I was able to talk to my brother about life… work… my life in here… sports… travel… everything. It gave me that window of normalcy that felt nothing short of incredible. I am so unbelievably grateful that they came and I left the visit with my shoulders relaxed and a smile on my face.
Moral of the story this week… embrace and appreciate the “mundane-ness” of every day life if for nothing else… it allows us to really feel (and be grateful for) how special the extraordinary events are when they come around.
Stay Healthy. Stay Active. Embrace it all.