Big hug Arf...I still think of them as birthdays albeit birthdays in Heaven

I often reflect and sometimes I bring out the old photos on these days to remember the special times

Another big hug and a blessing...xo

thank you, suncloud. yeah, it still feels like a birthday to me, as well. i've been singing my personalized version of the warren zevon song, "keep me in your heart" which was my therapy song for the initial grief of his funeral.

"i will hold you in my thoughts
"i will take you to my dreams
"i will touch you when you come into view
"while the spring is springing,
"i will watch your children grow
"and feel you right next to me.
"sha-la-la
"sha-la-la
"sha-la-la-la-lo
"i will keep you in my heart, always."

arfie, I LOVE Warren Zevon and got to see him live before he died. I posted that very song here after that. SC's comment about heaven reminded me about Eric Clapton's song about his child's loss,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxPj3GAYYZ0

When I was 21, as you know, a choice was made to abort a baby who must not have been meant to be born, I suppose. It led to my being kicked out of the church in which I grew up as a missionary kid, and disciplinary action at my Christian college.

Yet though I don't harbor anger now toward that choice, now often I do think of how old that baby would be now if it had gone to term, like your thinking of your son's brithday even though he's gone. I get it. Abrazos.

(((((Arfie))))))
Those words to that song are so beautiful it made me tear up. I just lit a candle that I have with two wicks in it & said a prayer for you & him (hope that’s okay)

Sending lots of support
Gentle hug <3

Yes. That is how we hold on:. "keep you in my heart always" - beautiful song. (((((HUG)))))

thank you, guys. methinks i am holding steady. it remains harder than hard, but letting the heartache be okay is getting me through.

warren zevon is mostly too violent and egocentric for my taste and even this song places himself at the center of the universe, but with a few minor tweaks, the world grows.

I liked Zevon because he went off topic from the standard formula or a pop or a rock song, arfie Yeah, you're right that he wrote a lot about violence, but even then it wasn't your usual tv bar fight or something. Of that weird genre of violence of his, I got a lot a support for my PTSD out of his song about a boxing match with boxer Boom Boom Mancini, and I'm not a boxer. or a boxing fan.

In my life as a pastor's kid, one of my dad's churches was in Mancini's hometown of Youngstown, OH. The song builds to the line that boosts my courage to cope with my PTSD from combat as a kid. Lots of blows landed on me during the six years of civil war I survived as a missionary kid abroad.

"Hurry home early hurry on home
Boom Boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon
Hurry home early hurry on home
Boom Boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon

From Youngstown, Ohio, Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini
A lightweight contender, like father like son
He fought for the title with Frias in Vegas
And he put him away in round number one

Hurry home early hurry on home
Boom Boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon
Hurry home early hurry on home
Boom Boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon

When Alexis Arguello gave Boom Boom a beating
Seven weeks later he was back in the ring
Some have the speed and the right combinations
IF YOU CAN"T TAKE THE PUNCHES, IT DON"T MEAN A THING"

INDEED. Though there was boxing violence there, to me as a non-boxing fan he was really talking about life, somehow, even mine. Today I had flashbacks from a beating years ago and since I have CKD from a bad doc's overdoing PTSD meds I have to tough them out. Believe it or not, the song helped me do that.

amen to zevon's knack for unique perspectives and his classics are worthy of many salutes. given his background, i often wonder if his complex ptsd might have been more complex than yours and mine put together.

I think it was, arfie, no kidding.

By the way, when I walked my dog I put my headphones on and my iPod song list on shuffle and wouldn't you know that at random that very Zevon song came on and encouraged me. Uncanny.