One Drop of Goodness

I want to tell you a story about mending fences. It’s a story directly about my Linda. If you think one person cannot change the world, you are wrong. He could. And he did. I cannot begin to imagine the number of lives he touched or changed for the better but I can tell you about one in particular. Me. One person. That affected another person. That affected another person. That in turn has affected MANY. The ripple effect from that ONE drop of goodness spread infinitely and continues to do so today… after he’s been gone from here for 9 stupid months. This is a message for us all. In so many ways. It’s a beautiful message. Like a peacock feather. It starts in the middle with a big, beautiful dot. Then it circles outward. And continues to become more beautiful until the whole thing is nothing less than a work of art in and of itself. Not to mention the surrounding feathers that make up one glorious, gorgeous creature that we can stand in incredible awe. One drop of goodness.

Divorce is a wretched thing. It is horrendous. It is the ripping of souls no matter what. Some can take the high roads and make life better as a result. Some don’t. There’s a lot of reasons things go the way they go and as we grow and gain experience in life…we can use the old adage “hindsight is 20/20.” That’s happened to me many times in my 50 years. Im thankful for the age and wisdom that’s come along with it… regretful for many decisions that taught me the hard lessons only life can teach. While the lessons were hard and cannot now be undone, I was given another day. How blessed to get another day to take a lesson learned and make something good of it. My ex husband and I took a hard road ( I suppose I should speak for myself-but I can look back and see my own contributions to not the high road).. When Todd (Linda) & I became a ‘thing’- my kids dad and I were not in the best place. But my Linda loved that guy. Never minced words about it. He loved that guy. He never accepted my sour patch kid attitude about it, always spoke well and praised him to my kid. He started building a bridge. Because of that bridge… we could begin to come together in a new way. We began celebrating our kids birthday. His wife and I could come together and connect as the mothers we both could and wanted to be to our daughter. She was her daughter, too, after all. Little things started manifesting into bigger things. We started to get together without the kid. We were able to now laugh and share stories and bond. The four of us now had become solid co-parenters. One drop of goodness. They were there for me when I lost my love. They’ve continued to be there. Their extended family has been there. I have been welcomed back after a long road around hell and embraced by an entire family that had to watch the unnecessary agony from the many ups and downs of that worn out path many of us take full of conflict, ugliness and disagreement. There are no fingers to point. I am responsible for my own road to hell and back by not choosing the drop of goodness. It happens all the time. My message… be somebody’s bridge. Life is so overwhelmingly good when you can meet on top of that bridge. Its truly incredible to find that the bridge allowed me to discover how much I needed these very two people in my life. I had no idea. I had no concept of what I know now. I hold them both very close. And life is BETTER because of it. How beautiful. Be your own bridge. Yes, Toddy was and continues to be a force of nature. He was also a simple man. Simply a good man. With a drop of goodness. Well… lots and lots of them. HE is the drop of goodness.

Last night, 3 of Carleighs parents came together to celebrate this human we all love together. We were joined by their family that I haven’t seen in so many years. The embraces had only grown stronger on top of this beautiful bridge. I cannot begin to explain to you what that means to a broken heart. My Linda gave the way for that healing to seep into the cracks of my heart by mending one fence. When you can come together and share love without any reservations, the past starts to dissolve. This. Is. A. Gift. I am not taking away from the healing done by those who have been in my life… I am just expressing how much healing occurs when you least expect it…and you yourself~ add one drop of goodness. It can change the world.

Thanks for coming along… leave a drop in someone’s life today my friends. JHW+