Appreciating the Memory of my husband, Clarence

It's been awhile since I've written any thing on my blog. I don't know why I'm not consistent with making my daily entries, but I'm going to tackle this writing again.

A lot has happened since my last entry, Clarence died in February and since that time my mind has been in a state of confusion and turmoil. However, I am slowly working through the madness. It is very difficult to stay focus on the things you need to do, after losing a loved one. But I have to get through this. What has helped me thus far is prayer and traveling. Prayer keeps me grounded and provides me with an inner strength and traveling to different places uplifts my spirit and feeds my soul. Traveling was something that Clarence and I did together quite frequently. Some trips were planned and others were done on the spur of the moment. No matter the situation we enjoyed every moment; and I am so grateful for all the experiences and wonderful memories. I am truly blessed.

To continue to honor the memory of my husband, I decided to keep up our tradition of traveling. Since he can't be with me physically, he is with me spiritually. Each place that I have traveled too, I feel his presence. In April, I went to Nassau, Bahamas and had the opportunity to visit a section of the island called Fox Hill. There I went to a sculpture garden carved out of tree trunks; it's called Sacred Spaces. It was located on top of a hill overlooking the ocean. During the time that I was there, there was a naval ship in the background, which I thought was so appropriate to honor the memory of Clarence. He loved the sea and with the ship in the background, it capture the purpose of my journey - to honor Clarence's memory. I prayed and offered his spirit to the sea, and thanked God for the life that I had enjoyed with Clarence. I was blessed to have known him for 47 years, and 37 of those years we were married. In this day and time, that is truly an accomplishment.

I thought I would slow down with the traveling, however, I was getting restless, so during the second week in July, I went on a road trip with one of my daughters. Part of the trip was planned, but during course of the trip we changed plans midstream. We were on our way to a wedding in Islamorada, Fl. This place is on the Florida Keys. We drove from New Jersey, spent one night in Richmond, VA, and St. Augustine, FL. We arrive in Islamorada, FL, spent 2 fabulous night there, left there and drove to Tampa, FL and stayed one night; left there drove to Atlanta, GA, spent 2great nights there with a childhood friend; left there and drove to Chicago, IL, passing through TN, KY, IN. We spent 4 nights in Chicago with another daughter, and my grandson. Needless to say, we had a glorious time there; then we drove back to Philadelphia, then home to NJ. What a fantastic trip!

I was only home a short time when another trip came up, which had been preplanned, but due to my lost, I forgot all about it. Since I was unable to cancel the trip without incurring penalites, we took another drive to Hilton Head Island, SC. This place is beautiful and HOT, muy caliente! But what makes this trip special to me has been meeting the local people in the community. My husband would have really appreciated this trip because he truly enjoyed meeting, mingling and eating the local cuisine.

Now reality is setting in, I do have bills to pay, hair and doctors' appointments to keep, plus maintain my house and give my body a rest from all the traveling; but it's hard to do because it's the change of scenery and visiting various places that uplifts my spirit. To that as I said before, I'm grateful!