Category: A Few of My Favorite Things

A Few of My Favorite Things, The World We Live In

It Was Just A Dog

Marisa

We lost our old dog, Molly, yesterday.

She got sick on Sunday, we found out it was cancer and bad on Monday, and by Wednesday, she was gone.

We made the hardest decision a dog owner can ever have to make. I know that it was the right choice, but my heart just isn’t at the place where it accepts what my mind knows.

And it hurts. And it is going to hurt for a long, long time.

“It was just a dog.”

I’ve heard people say that. I am sure I have been guilty of thinking or saying it from time to time myself.

But I can assure you, from the bottom of my heart, Molly was never just a dog.

No, my Friends, she was so much more.

We brought her home as an engaged couple months before our marriage. She followed us along on our adventures. She moved with us and was there when we welcomed home our four babies. She kept me company when Josh worked night shift for so many years. She sat beside me when I was sick with morning sickness and laid next to me when I lost a baby. She kept watch over our children and was there through it all. She is as much sewn into the fabric of our lives and the pages of our story as we are.

Her loss is one that will hurt for a long time and she’s left a Molly sized hole here.

I don’t know if there is a heaven, but I’d like to believe it’s there. I can only hope it exists and that if I make it, a little black dog with a wild wagging tail is there to meet me.

So, you see, no, she wasn’t just a dog. She was family and she’s going to missed for forever.

A Few of My Favorite Things, Travel

Nashville Strong

Marisa

As some of you may know, I am Ohio born and bred, but I spent a couple of the best years of my life in Nashville, TN while pursuing my undergraduate degree at Belmont University.

That time in my life is so special to me. I finished degree and had some of the greatest experiences. I met some of the most amazing humans there and made some of the best lifelong friends that a girl could ask for. It was the place where I found myself and really came into my own.

Nashville will always be home to me.

Yesterday morning a horrific act of what can only be described as terrorism happened in Music City. Some one for some reason decided to set off a bomb on 2nd Avenue. It destroyed buildings and businesses and it displaced residents from their homes.

Thankfully due to the quick thinking of first responders the damage to human life was minimized.

If you have ever been to Nashville, 2nd Avenue is a big part of the tourist district. I walked that street so many times in my years there venturing in and out of bars, restaurants, and shops.

The thought of what thr damage could have looked like had it occurred at a different time of day makes me ill.

It makes me sad that someone believed that they had the right to damage, break, and destroy what was not theirs. It makes my heart heavy to acknowledge that kind of evil in this world. These kinds of acts can never be justifiable.

My heart is with that Southern city.

I mourn with Nashville for the damage and heinous act that was perpetrated yesterday morning.

I loved my time living in Nashville and I would move back given the chance. I love the place and the people and my time there. I will always claim it as “home” to me.

Nashville, you’re strong and resilient.

We are all praying for you.