Salvageable

You know those hol­i­day let­ters peo­ple send out that chock full of unbe­liev­able crown­ing achieve­ments, kids who are inhu­man in their per­fec­tion, and the adults who live a stress-free, rock-star life? That isn’t what Sal­vage­able is about. And, that’s why I thor­oughly enjoyed this blog writ­ten by native Texan, Ann.

She brings you right into the heart of her fam­ily. As I read, I imag­ined pick­ing up her “jour­nal” in some dusty antique shop and open­ing it to find the story of her fam­ily; writ­ing meant for her­self that ends up being shared with a star­tling open­ness with the blo­gos­phere. Ann is mar­ried to the same man a lifetime—their bond strong. She was a mil­i­tary wife. She is a mother. She is a grand­mother. As part of the great migrat­ing mil­i­tary force, she’s had her share of hav­ing to start over. And incred­i­bly, though the tough­est times rais­ing her own kids are over, she some­how finds time to extend her hand in a non-enabling way to a teenager who needs some mentoring.

Most recently, Ann has been chal­lenged with the issues that come up around her aging father. Offered off-hand, tucked in between dis­cussing start­ing her new job and the ren­o­va­tion that is start­ing at her house, Ann’s pro­vides the solu­tion to her lat­est dilemma. Sim­plic­ity and grace, that’s Ann: “We’re excited, because we’re hop­ing this change will help us care for my dad. We want him with us.”

She has a life full of real crown­ing achieve­ments, but it’s not perfect—and I sus­pect if Ann had her way, it never would be. Please enjoy today’s Ris­ing Blog­ger Post of the Day from Sep­tem­ber 17, 2007, After the Fall.