I’ve been holding my breath for a week.
Lots of events have happened in the past seven days.
Some very excellent.
One very sad.
I realized around last Wednesday I was going to need to move slow and steady like the tortoise in the race with the hare. In my case, running fast and trying to get ahead of everything was going to burn me out, so I took a deep breath and it seems I didn’t let it out until yesterday.
I will explain, but I’ll go backwards and begin with Saturday.
My youngest son and his girlfriend of five years got married Saturday. It was amazing and wonderful. We had a great time. The ceremony went off without a hitch. The photographer did a great job (Though I admit, being a professional photographer, I could not resist shooting my own photos too. You can see them on my Facebook page: Lynne Hough Photography.)
The reception was really fun. One of the best things about it was the gathering of family and loved ones from all over the country.
My youngest sister came down from South Carolina; my oldest brother drove with his family up from Bradenton, Florida. The bride’s grandparents came from Missouri. And the wedding date was set so my daughter living in Africa could be here. Several local members of our family were there, as was many people from the bride’s family.
There was lots of happy tears and laughter.
So that was Saturday.
Go back one day to Friday: rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. There was lots of driving and gathering of children who were to be in the wedding.
The dinner was at Blackwater Bistro. If you’ve been there, you know the food was great, as was the atmosphere. Visitors from out-of-town and those locals who had never eaten there before loved it. Thank you to the ladies who waited on our group. You were perfect.
The day before that: Thursday. Thanksgiving. My ex-husband and his significant other invited us all over to their home where they did all the cooking. That was a treat. Of course, there was the trying-on of tuxedos for the wedding. We had the boys try on their little shoes, shirts, ties, and pants. Shoes didn’t fit. Ended up buying those the morning of the wedding.
I sat at a table with my grown and growing children for the “feast” as the little guys called it. They tormented each other and told stories. We are finding some things my oldest daughter in the Peace Corps is unaware of. She’s been catching us up on the positives of living in Africa – the differences in the cultures. That has been very interesting.
On Wednesday, I worked and squeezed in shopping for a dress for the wedding with my daughter and a friend.
On Tuesday, I cried a lot because the day before, a friend of mine was found dead from an apparent suicide (see page 6A).
On Monday night, I discovered my friend killed himself, something I still can’t come to terms with. Especially after seeing what his co-workers at the Crestview Police Department had to say about him. {{sigh}}
So, today we are preparing the paper for Wednesday, Dec. 4 and I finally feel like I can breathe again.
I had a great visit with my sister and we cried about our last days with my dad (he died 2012). We laughed at our similarities and the way we see the world. And I do remember my mother telling me over the past few days when I was being particularly stubborn. “Don’t ever doubt that you have a lot of your dad in you.”
That comment made me happy.
It looks like the way of the tortoise served me well this week.
Now I’m back on the treadmill.
Published Dec. 2, 2013
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Woman on the Edge: The tortoise