The best part of the day for me is morning. I love waking up before the dawn to sit in the middle of my bed and gaze through my bedroom window to witness the night brighten into day.

This morning my phone buzzed with an email letting me know that my friend, Missy, over at The Ladybug Chronicles had published a new post. I tapped on the email and started reading what she had written, but by the end of it I felt that rush of emotion from the heart to the head as a sob got caught in my throat not quite turning into tears. In hindsight, I probably should have just let myself have a good cry.

I met Melissa during one of my weekly focus sessions hosted through my work with Fearless Living Academy. This week is my final week with that job as I gave notice to my coworkers in August that it was time for me to leave. There was no particular reason attached to my notice, just that it was time, but I’ve been with that community since before it was formed. Missy is one of several souls I made a lasting connection with.

Sitting in bed, I gaze at the row of running shoes lined up across the top of the Ikea wardrobe and decided what pair to wear this morning for walk 27, of my 100 walks challenge. After starting this post, I threw on some walking clothes, changed my mind about which shoes to wear and plucked a pair from inside the cabinet. Pale pink vintage Nikes with a pair of Bombas footies already tucked inside the shoe.

As I walked, I thought about this song I’m sharing with you in this post. It was one of the songs mentioned in Missy’s post, entitled Clear Blue Morning, by Dolly Pardon. I don’t recall ever hearing it before today, or maybe I have and didn’t make the connection since Dolly’s passing hit hard. I think there’s probably a multitude of things Dolly did that we aren’t aware of because that woman lived large. She had such a generous spirit and I imagine her always choosing to do what would help someone else.

She even exited the path gracefully in my mind at the age of 80, but her legendary life blesses us for the rest of ours.

People ask, “What are you going to do to replace your job?”, and my answer is, ‘Nothing’. By God’s grace I still have my other job which has changed this year to offer expansion and ample opportunity to learn new things. I’m grateful for this job that began in 2014 as part-time work from home. It helped sustain me while learning to be a single Mom, but we need space for the random goodness of life.

It’s been an emotional few weeks and as I shared with my friend, Dwight, in a Marco Polo…”I’m not good with emotions!” He encouraged me to feel them and let them wash over me, so that’s what I’m doing this week. Friday will be my final focus session with some of my favorite people and as I write this, my eyes well up with tears.

I’m not searching for what’s next and will embrace the unknown by faith, but this song offered reassurance, or maybe it was hearing Dolly’s voice. The song came to a close as I heard Dolly say exactly what I needed to hear….”Everything’s gonna be alright…it’s gonna be okay”…and maybe you, brave heart, need to hear her voice sing those same words to you.

Thank you Melissa, for publishing this post when you did.

27 W
13 S