Saving love.

Oh, I have sorely neglected this place, haven't I? Well, I just found an email from NaBloPoMo and it made me feel bad I've been such a poor blogger.  I wish I could offer up exciting excuses, like that I've been held in a Cyprian jail cell for smuggling art or something, but alas!  I just suck and am boring to even myself.

July is a bad month for me for many, many reasons.  For the most part, though, it's because everyone I've loved the deepest has died in July.  I hate July...passionately.  As far as I'm concerned, this is the month of death and sadness. A child I loved beyond reason and words died in July.  A father I loved fiercely and who was my other me died in July.  A beautiful, kind man, one of the few truly good people in this world who I was honored to call my best friend, my brother, my family and a true love of a different kind, died in July.
I hate July.

But NaBloPoMo gave me a thump on the head and while I'm technically a day late, it's still July 1st  in Hawaii or somewhere so, aloha and let's get on with it.  The theme is "saved".  I struggled over "saved" a bit and thought about sharing some of my packrat ways but found myself thinking instead of what I have saved in my heart from those I lost.  Many things came to mind and it seemed right to share those, instead.

From the father, I have saved the lack of societal convention and acted on it in his honor.  It's okay to be different.  It's okay to embrace your "oddities" instead of fearing them  or being scared of them. It's okay to be a loner. It's okay to laugh at yourself.  It's okay to rebel. It's okay to be wrong, to apologize, to be a fallible human.

From the child, I have saved in my heart that it's okay to look different, to come from a different background, as long as you know it all comes from love.  As long as you know you came from love, were created with love, and knew unconditional love, that gives you the strength to live and die with peace and knowing it is God's will.

From the best friend, I have saved in my heart that love can come in so many different forms and just because our society doesn't acknowledge them, they are no less valid.  Real love is precious, rare, and brings many unexpected joys when not shunned just because it is different.

I have saved all the love I have been given from those who are gone.  I have known true love, given true love, lost true love, mourned for true love in all of its forms.  And I have saved all of it in my heart.  I am beyond lucky to have that.

PS:  I just saw that the writing prompt for the day is to tell what your favorite movie is.  Well, mine would be either Billy Elliot or To Sir, with Love, followed closely by The Graduate.