Sunday, February 03, 2008

What can I say…?

I’ve been gone for a while.

I want to tell y’all about exotic vacations with beautiful people, about how I ate miniature food on oversized plates and took snapshots standing in front of important monuments, about how life is bliss dipped in chocolate...

I want to, but I’d be fibbing. Big. So what can I say?

Instead I can tell you that if you don’t empty your mailbox the post office police (they have those, you know) send people to knock on your door. He told me with a stern voice and a furrow in his brow that even though I paid for the bricks and laid them with my very own hands, I do not in fact own my mailbox. It’s federal property and I’m required by law to check my mail and empty the box on a regular basis.

I can tell you about being stopped for drinking and driving for the first time. Only I wasn’t drinking and hadn’t had a drink in two months. The officer (a real policeman this time) was generous with his time as I explained that yes, I really am that bad of a driver and that my bloodshot eyes had more to do with the tears pouring out of me than any beer poured in. He was nice and completely convinced of my sobriety after I successfully named all the presidents, recited the alphabet backwards, and spent 45 minutes telling him how my life had turned on a dime in a few short days.

I can tell you that bosses don’t like it when you call in “I really just can’t muster a smile today” but if you have a boss like mine, you’re lucky that he understands.

I can tell you that even if man can’t live on bread alone a girl only needs a couple of Diet Cokes and an occasional green apple and she’s good for at least 3 weeks.

I can tell you that I have the pleasure of sharing blog space with phenomenal women who despite never having met me face to face are always there to offer me hugs as if we were life long friends. Gemma, Christie, Leslie, Jana, Kathy -- thank you!

And I can tell you, with a certainty, that which does not kill you does indeed make you stronger. It’s true.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yet another hug coming your way {{hug}} Feel better soon.

Anonymous said...

My goodness, darling. What can I say? Huggs, sympathy, and the assurance that it will get better. The valleys are where we grow, the mountain tops are where we celebrate climbing out of the valleys.
Tennessee Williams wrote, "Plan voyages, attempt them, that's all there is." I would say that life is more a series of valleys and mountain tops, ups and downs. David says we go through the valley of the shadow of death--He doesn't say we stay there. I suggest you obtain a copy of THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE by Rick Warren, and go through a chapter a day for 40 days. You can e-mail me at sheople@peoplepc.com and I will mail you a copy. I will be your friend and listen and not judge you, because I know what it is like to be where you are. My husband once took a job working out of town for an extended period of time. I had just enrolled in college for the fall semister, so we decided I would stay home and finish. As time drew near for me to join him, he got slower and slower to answer his phone, and had less and less to say, until all we talked about was how much money he had deposited in our bank account and what bills had been paid. He stopped coming home for the weekends, didn't want me to come there, and didn't want to meet halfway. Finally, came the words no wife wants to hear, "I've met someone."
I stayed in my bed and cried for seven days straight. Only got up to go to the bathroom and get a drink of water. I did not eat anything or drink anything but water during that week.
Fast forward to last summer. I went to the doctor's office for a checkup. Felt great. Was happy. Heard my doctor say, "I'm glad you feel good, 'cause you're not. You're in heart failure. Your heart could just stop any time, and you could fall down dead!"
It's February. I'm still here and I still feel fine, and I'm happy.
I've been unfairly fired from jobs, had financial ups and downs...as the song goes "I've seen fire and I've seen rain. Times when I didn't have a friend..." and all that. I can promise you, "The sun will come out tomorrow...." (If it were not for popular music we'd have to come up with our own lyrics.) My name is Helen, and I'm here if you want to the person sitting next to you on the "bus".

Anonymous said...

*hugs* sweetie.

Kathy Bacus said...

My favorite saying about adversity? Hard times are not character building--they are character revealing. And you've got character in abundance, Bethany.

Hang tough, kiddo.

~Bullet Hole~

Michele L. said...

Oh my! I am sending you a bunch of cyber hugs right this very mintue! :-)

Many blessings to you!
Hugs,
Michele L.

Anonymous said...

Bethany,

I'm sending you cyber hugs also. Take care of yourself, girl.

Faye