Who's Awesome?
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Michael Martine |
The Personal Blog of Michael Martine |
There is supposed to be a Picasa slide show above. If you don't see it, try refreshing the page.
On a whim, I visited with my family over Thanksgiving. I hadn't seen any of them for many years. My brother Jeff lives in North Carolina with his wife, LaWanna (who has ALS) and four children. The oldest, Taylor, is a special-needs child. My nieces are Sariya (7), Kaylee (2.5) and Lily (1). I'm not 100% about the ages, but it's close enough to get the job done.
I fell in love with my nieces immediately. I spent most of my time with them so Jeff could take care of everything else related to house remodeling and Turkey day. My dad and mom were also visiting, and Dad helped with the renovations. Jeff is retired military, and he runs his household like Commander Daddy. Being the only able-bodied person in the house, he has to take care of everything and everyone, so of course things get a little messy. His humor and unflinching confidence keeps everyone and everything moving along.
In many ways, great and small, living with my family (and especially my mother) has been like being fed lightly poisoned food my entire life: you won't die from it, but you're always sick. I had to get away from it and stay away from it until I really knew who I was. The legacy from this made relationships difficult, but I worked through a lot of issues with my ex-wife (we both viewed relationship as a Path, check out M. Scott Peck's books if you want to know more).
I now felt that I was strong enough in myself that I could deal with my folks and not lose any of the ground I had gained. My mother especially is essentially an emotional vampire, sucking all the happiness out of anyone around to bring them down to her level of self-loathing and misery. Everybody needs to be made as miserable as she is. But it didn't get to me. Everything was cool. I passed the test.
Part of the price I paid for my self-exile was that I missed out on the lives of my siblings and nieces, which was foolish. I regret that. Not because of guilt but because of love, I understand I have an obligation to them. I didn't know it, but they need me and I need them. Prior to now, I don't think I was strong enough inside to meet that obligation. Now, I am, and I recognize it and want to meet it. Our lives are richer because of each other.
It was a great Thanksgiving. For the first time in a very long time, I'm thankful for my family.
Grant & Clay Griffiths and me are the guys behind Headway (the new version of which is now available--wait till you see it!)
The weather was blustery and wet, getting rain drops on the camera lens. Photographer, I am not, but these will give you some idea of what I wandered around looking at while working off steam at my crapped out internet connection. Luckily, that situation was resolved nicely by getting a different room that ended up being more like what I wanted anyway: a smoking room with a desk, so I can relax, puff on my pipe, and get some work done.
Just messing around with a new camera. :-)
Where I LOL.
