HELLO SUMMER!

Welcome back to SOLO at SIXTY!

June 21st… my favorite day of the year! Why? I thrive on sunlight and June 21st is the LONGEST day of the year! Also, June 21st is the first day of SUMMER (my favorite season). Bring on that heat and humidity! I will take the heat over the cold any day. As I said earlier, I have a space heater under my desk at work that runs every day of the year, and an electric blanket on the back of my chair for the times when the heater is not enough. Yes, I am cold. And I REALLY do not like winter and cold weather. So, every winter I promise not to complain about the heat and humidity once it arrives. And I wait patiently for summer. Ok, that is not true… I have no patience and I do not wait patiently. I LONG for summer and the LONG days of light. And here it is… and there it goes. Because tomorrow, June 22nd, we start losing minutes of light every day until December 22nd (right after the shortest day of the year)! It’s the great circle of light.

“BD” (Before Divorce) we made the most of those longer, lighter evenings. We would get home from work and go for a walk to reconnect. To talk about our day. To talk about our kids. To share some new exciting accounting regulation (we are both accountants). Our neighborhood had wonderful paved walking paths – around the lakes, the tennis courts, the pool, the basketball courts. We walked up to an hour on those evenings. And we held hands. (We ran in the mornings down the middle of the road, but walked on paths in the evening. Safety first!)

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.” Walt Whitman

Who does not benefit from the sunlight? That natural Vitamin D that we all need. (So why am I deficient in Vitamin D and have to take it in pill form daily?) Sunshine just makes everyone happier. Ever notice how grumpy people are after a day or two of gloomy, rainy weather? One rainy day every now and then is ok, but couldn’t we have rain at night instead of daytime? As the late, great Karen Carpenter (who I loved!) once sang, “Rainy days and Mondays always get me down…”  (sidebar: I know the words to every Carpenter song… several years ago, our club was having the Legacy Challenge – games between employee teams – and part of it was playing the game “Don’t forget the Lyrics” where the song plays, stops and you must finish the lyrics. I was just going to watch until it was a Carpenter’s Song. I thought, “I can win this for our team!” So, I volunteered to compete. The song started and it was one I LOVED: “Hurting Each Other.” There I was, hamming it up big time as if I was Karen Carpenter… well… I got SO into this role that when the music stopped and I had to give the next line…  I could not remember where the song ended… and we lost. Never participating again!)

“Be the light for someone in their darkest hours.”

I was in a very dark place for several months. Yet I had so many people who brought light into my life. When my husband said he was leaving me right before the movers showed up to move us into our dream house (Friday May 13th, yes Friday the 13th), I called my sister who dropped everything, including a trip she and her husband had planned that day, and came to me. She saved my life. Literally. She and I unpacked every box, hung every picture and mirror, and placed every knick knack, book and photograph (none with my ex in them) on my new built-in bookshelves. At night we sat on my new back porch and drank wine and ate cheese straws and the lemon pound cake she had baked for her trip. We stayed up late and got up early (because I could not sleep) and by the time she left Sunday morning, my house was beautifully mine. My children… oh my wonderful children. I cannot say enough about how wonderful they have been. We ruined my oldest daughter’s birthday by telling her. She calls me every day on her way to and from work. After we told my middle child, she left, and later came back to my new house and spent the night with me – we had a sleepover. She and I do a lot together as she lives in Charlottesville. My sweet son – we had to tell him via phone (he lives too far away)….He called to make sure I was ok and has loved on me and been there for me. I adore my kids! (can you tell?!?!?)

“True Friends are those rare people who come to find you in the dark and lead you back to the light.”

My friends were wonderful too. I emailed my dear “old” next door neighbor (we were neighbors for 16+ years) who had moved to Kentucky (yes the one in the last blog who helped me when my Dad had a stroke) because at that point I could not verbalize anything. Started my email with “Sit down and be alone when you read this…” She immediately drove from Kentucky to be with me and helped me tell some of my girlfriends. One of those dear girlfriends called, texted, and sent me prayers – she had known a deeper loss in her life. These prayers worked. Another girlfriend brought me a bunch of dresses to wear to my 40th high school reunion (3 weeks after my separation) because she knew I was not in a shopping mood. (By the way, I did not tell anyone at the reunion – I wanted the reunion to be about old friends, not a broken heart. But I did have a GREAT time at my reunion!) My boss made an appointment with his attorney for me – I told him first, after all, he has been divorced several times and I figured he would know what I should do because as I told him – I had no clue. My sweet co-workers, worried about my first SOLO trip to the beach house, sent me off with a sand bucket full of wine, dark chocolate, a book, and other goodies. Another girlfriend from work and I would walk to the bank every afternoon just so I could “unload” … we still do this. She is a great listener. And Advisor. Several other out of town girlfriends came and spent weekends with me. WOW I have come a LONG way in a year and am so thankful for all the love and support I have received!

“No matter how bad things seem today, or how awful the situation…. the sun will rise and a new day will give another chance to start again.  There will always BE HOPE!”

The dark of night…

The light of day…

This is so true. I told myself if I could just make it through the dark of night, I could survive the light of day. I was not sleeping. Some days I just got up at 4 in the morning and went to work… My dear friend (from Kentucky) told me to ask for God’s grace every day. According to her priest, God’s grace has a short shelf life and we need to ask for His grace every day. Sometimes I asked for it hourly. And I received it because here I am – stronger, happier, a survivor.

And here I am today, June 21st, at my happy place, surrounded by my wonderful kids, on my favorite day of the year. I could not be happier! Also, I want to wish a HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my dear college friends who are celebrating 37 years of marriage today! They know how to make marriage work. I should also be celebrating 37 years this August, but it ain’t happening y’all. And that’s ok.

“The Sun is alone too, but it still shines.”

I am blessed and lucky to be surrounded by so many caring, loving, supportive people from different areas of my life who helped me bring my “light” back. I have learned that I can find light in family and friendships which are the real prizes in life. And I have learned that sometimes the darkest times give way to the brightest moments. And even on those “dark” days, because I still have them, I know I can make my own light, SOLO. More on that coming up soon!

So get out there and shine. Share some of your light with others. And enjoy the length of this day… it won’t be light this long again for another year!

See you next Wednesday!

Best,

Leslie