WAIT! DON'T LEAVE WITHOUT ME!!!

Picture this!

I am sleeping comfy as can be in my bed at home. It was a relatively exhausting day the day before so when my alarm goes off, I discard it, roll over and tell myself, "just 15 more minutes."
I wake up in a daze every few minutes thinking to myself, "Self! Get your lazy butt up and get ready or they are going to leave without you!" But my body still refuses.

I start having a dream about waking up, taking a shower, getting ready....it feels so real! I really think that I am ready to go to church with my family. In my dream, we are in the car, closing the garage door. The screeching of the garage door rolling on its rusty chain wails at me and in that moment....

I AWAKE!

It was all a dream! I am still in bed. All was a dream accept for the very end...the garage door really is closing. I leap out of bed, look out the window and see the car backing out of the driveway...my family is leaving without me!! I want to run downstairs with my curly hair all jacked up, lookin' like the cowardly lion, my mis-matched pajama's and eyes partially sealed together with eye gunk, dash out into the street, in front of the truck and say, "Wait! Don't leave without me!"
(SIDENOTE:: Were there enough comma's and descriptives in that sentence for ya?! )

This episode happened to me several times as a kid and it happened recently with my brother and sis-in-law. Maybe I should consider getting to bed early, huh? But I can't...I'm up scribing these blogs that provide the universe with so much entertainment! How could I let my many fans down?

I digress.

There is a point to my blog tonight, I assure you! I don't know what it is, but recently I have been feeling very nostalgic, somewhat melancholy, and definitely, despite my better judgment, vulnerable. I could sit here and speculate til the cows come home (whatever that means!) about why I am feeling all this emotion, but instead of wasting my precious time on that, I spent some time reflecting on the memories that my mind has stitched into a nice quilt that covers my heart and makes it so cozy, or as my niece would say, "kossee."

I started thinking about my family, whom, without fail, year after year, through the crazy, not so crazy, the good, the bad and the ugly, have stuck it out with me. My never-wavering Pappy who is a pillar in my life, my Nanny who continues to spend every day on her knees so her kids always get the best of what life has, my big brother who always says it just as it is, my little brother who amazes me because he, like my Pappy, never wavers and is the most non-judgmental person I know, my sister-in-law who has become the sister I never had and my best friend, the man I called Dad for so many years whose words of incredible wisdom I hold close to my heart, my Grandmother's who weren't blood related, but taught me so much with the time the invested in my life as a girl, and certainly, my family next door whose presence in my life is as familiar to me as that of those that lived under the same roof as I.

Although my circle of friends has consistently been very small at any season of my life, I am grateful for those who have called me friend. My friends have run the gamut of personalities and life walks, but all, I can say without reservation have added so much flair to my life. Even more than that, they have been willing to accept the good, the bad and the ugly with me.

There are times in my life that I sometimes felt like I wanted to run to the street and yell out, "Wait! Don't leave without me!" Times in my life when I didn't have great news to share. Times that I couldn't even lift my own head to look at my reflection, much less, look at them in the eyes. Times that I was so full of my own selfish ambition and pride, my life allowed for nothing more. Times that my dreams were so much bigger than what reality had space for in that season. Times that my stubbornness wouldn't let me see their point of view. Times that my insensitivity was hurtful.

Through 32 years of "those times", they are still with me!

SO....

All of this to say this:

Although I still may oversleep sometimes when it comes to my role as a daughter, sister, cousin, friend, etc, don't leave without me!

Let's journey this great life together, shall we?