Many things got in the way of my carefully crafted plans. The most notable of these are as follows:
Thing 1:
Thing 2:
WTAF?!!! How is he going to pay his rent or buy his groceries?!!!
Thing 3:
Thing 4:
Yeah - so that happened. About 4 weeks ago.
Dad is still with us, but he is losing his vision, his balance, his memory. I’m reprioritising my life so that he’s on top of the list (just below taking decent care of me. Because oxygen mask).
So I haven’t felt like writing or drawing much until now. Which is why I didn’t. And also why you are hearing from me now.
Scheduling announcement
(can you tell I’ve just discovered headings on Substack?)
I am hereby officially freeing myself from the obligation to publish here consistently. Forthwith, posting shall occur only when the following two criteria are met simultaneously:
I have the energy, and
I feel inspired.
And holy fuck do I have a lot to say - so I expect to feel inspired.
If you’ve been hanging around Great Things for a while, you’ll know that I myself had a(n almost) dance with Death a few months ago (you can read about that here for part 1 and here for part 2).
That experience motivated me to start cleaning up my own relationship with death - and therefore life.
This shitty situation with my dear old dad is forcing helping me to do that.
Future posts may be long or short. They might be about dad/life or they might be about anything at all. We shall see what arises.
What I can say is that whatever I post will be neither heavy and ‘serious’.
One of my issues with practicing self-development and spirituality is how intense, heavy and serious we tend to get about it. The deeper I go on this journey, the more I see that bringing lightness and playfulness into the things that matter makes our experience of those things more profound and expanded. More. Not less.
Because tension = contraction.
(I also discovered ‘dividers’!)
At least for now, Dad and I are having fun. Genuinely. I’m seeing him most days and we’re spending a lot of time chatting, visiting people and places he loves, eating his favourite meals, generally doing all the things.
(I spent yesterday researching indoor skydiving - stay tuned!)
There is so much to learn on this life/death journey and my plan is to joyously share myself and this experience with you in a way that makes both of our worlds lighter and a wee bit more delightful. Even - especially? - when we’re talking about the stuff that matters deeply.
Thanks for being here. You rock.
Ohhhh what a delicious and wonderful welcome back!! I was just laughing and cracking up through so much of the post. It flowed beautifully. All the small comments, details, jokes, just lovely. I always adore your POV and humor during the dark & hard moments and stories. The image of the truck moving your dad's house LOL! The police telling you they don't even investigate these things! The *redacted* images and words!! SO much to love and laugh about!!!!!!!!! Praying and hoping you will have the energy & wherewithal to keep posted. LOVE ALL OF IT!!!!!!!
I was so excited to see your name in my inbox this morning, it has been awhile. And now of course we know that you have so many good reasons why. So sorry to hear about all of it. Lots of life sucking events and ongoing struggles (just finding meds that work alone is exhausting!). Wishing you all the best with keeping going. Thanks for taking the time to draw your updates for us.