Hello Readers, Writers, and Friends,

This week has been rough. There are a lot of unknowns dancing around the edges of my life. Family health, personal wellness, and raging wild fires around our state have me feeling unsettled and praying for rain. All your thoughts and prayers in such a vein would be greatly appreciated.

And I’ll tell you a secret.

My husband drew our prompts today and I almost said forget it, I’ll post the prompts with an apology about how I just can’t today, and as I started typing the fiction came. So don’t ever let yourself walk away without the attempt. Write twelve words. Write twelve awful words that make no sense. It’s a beginning. And you never know what a beginning will become.

Today’s prompts are: what was left behind, reluctant participant

I didn’t want to leave you with nothing.

I didn’t want you to believe that I wasn’t thinking of you and how much you didn’t want to be here doing this. I know it’s hard. I know you hate funerals and all the pomp that goes with it. We’re all just people, you’d say, None of us deserves a parade. Well, I think I agree with you now. Death is for the dead. Funerals are for the living.

So do whatever you want. Have balloons. Have a piñata.

Serve coconut cream pie at the luncheon.

Forgo the luncheon and picnic in the park.

Make everyone come in costume.

I don’t care. This is for you. whatever you need to get through this.

If it means having some of my ashes compressed into a little crystal you wear, go for it. If it means getting a new tattoo, do it.

You were there for me every moment, even the moments they wouldn’t let you be. You’ve been mourning as we struggled together to win this fight. And we did, because we left it all on the field. We loved so hard against doctor’s orders that there’s nothing left to say other than, I will miss you.

And I know you will miss me, every day.

But that is not an excuse to fold into yourself. Go back out into the world and make it beautiful. Maybe not right way. It’s ok to take some time, but don’t waste any of this. You have so much left in you and around you. Don’t you dare squander it on sorrow.

Live so hilariously, that you have the funniest stories to tell me when we meet again. Be outrageous. I know you are at your happiest when you are being truly outrageous.

And know it’s ok. It’s more than ok. It’s all can ask in these last words.

Love yourself like I love you.

~Brad

“So if any of you had questions about why we are having this gathering in a Cheesecake Factory, dressed as our favorite fairytale characters now you know. It’s what Brad would have wanted. And I call the Double Dark Chocolate cheesecake.”

There it is. A little morbid, but apt to how I’m feeling today. Have an excellent weekend.