It's a new day.

So.  It's the first day of October, 2011.  A cool and crisp fall Saturday morning.  I am sitting in my kitchen looking out over the dappled sunny lawn where the leaves haven't really begun to collect yet, but I know they soon will.  It has rained most of the last ten days and everything is really green right now, and I am thankful for the sunshine and cooler temperature.  I am thankful for a weekend and a few days of down time in this crazy rat race this new school year has brought upon my world and my family.  I am also thankful for the fantastic meal I had last night at the Houndstooth Cafe, the first really good meal I've had there in months. 

I am thankful for the conversation that I just had with my Dad and Judy - they just finished a sausage & egg casserole breakfast that I made for their freezer choices and were putting their to-do lists together for their Saturday morning routine errands.  Today they will visit Mom at the Newport, go to the grocery store, come home and put away Judy's must-have Lean Cuisines and lunch items, then head back out to the mall for Judy's hair appointment, food-court lunch and monthly birthday card purchases.

I am thankful for my father's stamina and determination, yet sad that he must endure what is probably the hardest time in his life, unsurrounded by the love that we all know our family has for him.  He has loved Ginny Howland for 68 years, and just when he loves and needs her the most, she is elsewhere in mind and body, not understanding what is happening to her and it is killing my dad.  The irony of it all, the questions of why or how could such an unfair disease exist in a world that God created pound in my thoughts and make me wonder why.  There is no answer.  

I search and pray for peace of mind - for all of us in this absolutely unfair situation we now find ourselves.  New solutions and conversations are musts in this new day. 

The only thing that comes to mind is love.  Continue to love - and remind myself, my Dad, my sister and my Mom that love will find a way.  I don't know how, but it has to.

To that I say:  At least I can do that.