Punctuation Mark

When I retired from commercial construction in 1995 to take charge of out-of-control adolescants, my very first task was to see my youngest son (11 at that time) through his first brush with the juvenile justice system. Sure wish I could have dedicated that much time to seeing eldest son through his first brushes, but. . . Rent must be paid. Groceries must be purchased. Can't rewrite the past.

Part of youngest son's judicial sentence was a series of parent/child workshops on yaddahs like effective communications. He and I took the homework seriously and are still plying the principles to his son and daughter. The rest of the family is starting to think it might be more than legislated psychobabble. Maybe. . . Who knows what goes on inside other people's heads? I barely know what is going on inside my own head. The goal of the exercises youngest son (32) and I are still collaberating on is to provide clear, simple and mutually agreed upon punctuation within our living conflicts. Small bytes and long chews.

"Encapsulating" is the term which is bubbling out of my psychobabble soup this morning. The final health crisis and the passing of my husband's father has been a marathon which has challenged every member of the family. It is far from over, but it is feeling like the time is right to insert a summary of the progression. Hubs agrees. Insert healing punctuation here. A period and paragraph space works for me. For now, at least.

We are wrapping up the yaddahs here far enough to head back to the homestead for at least long enough to check on the chickens and bees. No hurry. Easy does it. Frequent processing pauses encouraged.