Some days are easy to write about.
Some days practically write themselves.
And then there are days like today.
Today is Father’s Day.
It is also twenty years since my mom died.
Those two facts have been quietly sharing space in my heart all day.
Grief is a strange thing. We tend to think that after enough time passes, it should become neat and predictable. Instead, it often becomes quieter but no less complicated.
Twenty years is a long time.
Three years is a long time.
And somehow, not long at all.
I have learned that memories don’t follow calendars. Some anniversaries arrive with tears. Others arrive with gratitude. Some arrive with a strange mix of sadness, love, regret, relief, laughter, and longing all tangled together.
Today feels a little like all of those things.
I don’t have a profound lesson tonight.
I don’t have a tidy ending.
I just know that love leaves a mark. Loss does too.
And maybe that’s enough.
So tonight, I am simply making room for the memories, the gratitude, the questions, and the emotions that don’t fit neatly into words.
Sometimes the victory is not having the answers.
Sometimes the victory is simply being willing to feel.
But first a nap 