I’ve been writing about my journey after the sudden loss of my husband in July, I try to write things that will help others and that are inspiring, however, I will tell you, I have had some dark moments.
Last week I had a series of nightmares. I have never been one to have nightmares making this particularly traumatizing for me. I would then wake at 4 a.m. and be unable to go back to sleep, so I was then quickly sleep deprived.
I am someone who needs my sleep, and getting four hours of sleep has an adverse effect on my busy and productive life.
At the same time, I was dealing with the betrayal of a woman who pretended to love me, but did not, and those who should have loved me, but did not. I spent a good deal of time trying to understand how we can love people who harm us, and I came to no real conclusion, only that because people are family doesn’t mean they are exempt from common decency, and the most basic rules of respect and kindness.
Finally, I took matters into my own hands, and kissed the kids goodnight and went to bed in my pink striped cotton P.J.’s at 8:00 p.m. and took a dramamine. I love dramamine for sleep and take it the night before a sailboat race if I know the winds are high. I took it when I was training for my BK license because we had 35k of wind and I was very sea sick the first few days. Although, I have many sleep aid choices, I like dramamine because it knocks me out for 10 hours with the only side effect being a sense of calm the next day. On this night, I prayed for sweet dreams and drifted off to sleep. I awoke the next morning feeling rested and have been fine ever since. Thank goodness.
As many who have been married 20 plus years know, there are ups and downs in long term marriages. I’ve spent the last two months playing and replaying all of the memories of those years with my husband, 25 years to be exact. A quarter of a century. Most of them were wonderful and I am grateful for them, some of them were not, but they taught me so much about myself, love and forgiveness that I wouldn’t change a single moment.
The word forgive in Aramaic means to untie. So I untie myself from the past and move now into my future. In the sailing world this is called casting off.
Sydney 