A Southern Rehabilitation

Yesterday, January 22, marked the 3 year "anniversary" if you will, of one of my dear friend's death. It is hard to believe it has been 3 years. I miss her more every day. I met this friend in high school--1977ish. I was a sophomore and she was a junior. I thought she was a beautiful girl with this amazing smooth hairless olive colored skin. One time I watched her make this wax stuff. She stirred and kneaded until it was the perfect consistency and then Girlfriend put that wax on her arms, legs, etc... and pulled the hair right off her body. I visibly winced as she did so. She also had the biggest boobs of ANY girl on campus. We girls were totally envious! The guys thought Hugh Hefner sent her just for their viewing pleasure. PLUS, she was from Egypt! EGYPT! I was a mountain girl from Asheville, NC, and this girl was pretty exotic to me--to all of us. Her name was Fibi Hanna.  Today, yesterday--these days have been heavy on my mind. I have been thinking of Fibi a lo...

It's hard to believe that another 365 days have come and gone since my last "end of year post." I just went back and read my " Finding the Good in 2013 " post and at the end of it I said something about feeling like the rotten of 2013 was going to carry over into 2014. Well, it sure did... in a million different ways on a zillion different levels, but upon reflecting over the last 365 days, I did find some good; I did remember some incredible moments. In all honesty, I bet I could recount many more highlights from the year than the lowlights. I think it's the weight of the hard and difficult and painful and heartbreaking times that make the days feel so sucky. The hurt is just so heavy and and when the burden is "that heavy," it is difficult for me to believe that there will be a better day and there is a big tendency to simply give in to the hurt because that is all I can feel.  It's during those times that I forget about all the sunshine in m...