Oxygen mask

On every flight the same message. When I travel I hear and smile at the reminder for self care. Women so need to hear this message. Care for yourself first. Then you can assist the others around you.

This week has offered a few reminders of this important message. I can see what happens when we think we can care for someone else more or first.

It’s Father’s Day today and I am reminded of the caring my mother provided for my father, and our family, over the years he was alive. He suffered a great deal at the end, and his care had to be handed over to professionals. My mother had to don her own oxygen mask before caring for him. It is not a one time thing. Over and over and over we need to daily notice if we are getting enough oxygen, enough self care.

We also have to suspend judgment on what it might look like for another person. How we care for ourselves is so unique and specific to our own needs and our own personal circumstances that it might not appear to be that for onlookers. Self care is clearly about the authentic self and nurturing to what is needed.

I am grateful I had the precious years with my father. I admired him and what he was able to accomplish. I saw him in our home, in his work, and in his struggles. Mostly I saw the fun loving and caring and nurturing person he was as my father and the grandfather to my children. What a gift, my father.

I take a big in breath today and sit in the memory of the Father’s Day calls and times we had together. I breath again and remember how much I was loved and nurtured by him. And more breaths as I allow and even invite memories of his fathering.

With a big thank you to my mother on this fine day for modelling caring for herself and in so doing, providing care for my favourite man ever, my dad.

A deep breath as the tears fall. Another as I smile.

With much love this special Father’s Day.

Wish you were here,

Xoxoxox