And then It Was Done

I have written about my Grandfather previously here on my blog.  I won't rehash the whole family situation, but in the spirit of working through things...I write....

So my family situation on my Dad's side is strained.  Grandpa disowned all of us after marrying the devil which walks the earth with the name Jeanie.  Grandpa and the Devil are selling the Hylton home.  The home my Grandfather, my Dad and uncles all had a hand in building.  All of us lived there at one point and it was the center of the family, the gathering place for all birthdays, thanksgivings and famous Christmas brunches.  The best pies in America were baked in my grandmothers famous oven.  Many laughs, loves and tears were expressed in that home.  Many arguments too, I won't pretend we are anything near perfect. 

My Grandpa finally reached out to his sons, asking them to come over and go through things before the devil and he sell the house and move to Kentucky.  as my Dad put it....all of that is just "stuff" but my grandfather, and the essence of what our family was....is gone.

Somehow though, the news that my Grandmothers stove would be sold off or sold with the house devastated me.  I cried....twice... while talking to my dad.

But, this is really it.  The dismantling of the Hylton home.  The picking apart the ashes of my deceased grandmother and her wishes.  My Grandfather has allowed this.  I know each generation wants better than the one before....so with this, I hope we Hylton's learn from the mistakes that have gone before us, allow this tragedy to draw us closer together as a family and pave roads to new traditions and bonds.  All we have is each other and a lifetime more of memories to build. 

I may be the last "Hylton", the only grandchild, but i won't let it end there.  We have had two amazing women who have now married into the family and another grandchild to add to the mix.  My daughter is not a Hylton per se but may she experience what we Hylton's can show her about what we were a part of for so many years....in that home.

I raise my glass to the Hylton's.  Olds, belle, Jim, Charles, Dwight, Yolanda, Charya, Lorena & Hailey.

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one."

The Rapture of Being Alive

Excerpts from Broken Open by Elizabeth Lesser

"Rapture is not a selfish emotion.  It is pure gratitude, flowing freely through the body, heart and soul.  Gratitude for what?  For breath, for colors, for music, for friendship, humor, weather, sleep, awareness.  It is a willing engagement with the whole messy miracle of life.  The world suffers more from unhappy, stifled people trying to do good than it does from those who are simply content with themselves."

"I have a card stuck on my refrigerator that shows a woman standing in reverence before an open freezer door, saying, "Amazing! Perfect ice cubes again."  That's the kind of simple rapture I am talking about.  I realize we are not put on this earth to stand around open freezer ranting like idiots about ice cubes.  But a good question to ask yourself is this: If perfect ice cubes or an evening sky or an old song on the radio has not made your heart flip-flop lately, why not? What is keeping you from feeling rapture?  I can assure you, you won't find the answer in a lighted room.  What stands between you and a full-bodied life can be found only in the shadows.  What wants to live in you may be waiting-as it was for me-at the end of a long loneliness"

Rapture: Ecstatic joy or delight; joyful ecstasy

 

 

 

 

 



I Just Feel Good

I've spent a lot of time the past week near the water, driving the coast and soaking up the sun....and I just feel good.

There is something about the water....so peaceful and centering.  The sun, so soothing and comforting.

I feel alive.  I feel things inside, the wheels are turning and change is occuring.  I will lay out the welcome mat....

"Don't ask what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."