A Reason to Celebrate...

If you are one of my 300 Facebook “friends”, or happen to be one of the 10 people who “follow” me on Twitter- @mjm51964, you probably have noticed that I have had much to celebrate lately. Certainly, Yvonne’s graduation has been the highlight of the year so far. Her commencement speech was warmly received, and I have been told by many that she really connected with the audience.

On a lighter note, my Los Angeles Kings did the unfathomable - they won the Stanley Cup! For a guy who has loved hockey since he was a kid knocking tennis balls into a makeshift goal, with a couple of old Northland sticks, this is a big deal. The celebration of my favorite team’s success was culminated by attending yesterday’s victory parade in downtown Los Angeles.

What might appear to some as a type of trifecta of celebratory events occurred last night at Mt. San Antonio College. My youngest daughter and the rest of Brea High’s class of 2012 walked across the platform and received their diplomas. Only this time I did not feel much like celebrating.

Why people struggle with the things they do we will never really understand. As a therapist I am trained, and continue to be, to help people overcome their struggles-which sometimes includes not only the “how to” overcome problems, but also the discovery of why the problems exist.

Yesterday was the first time that I laid my eyes on my daughter in two months. This is not how I ever envisioned it happening. Graduations are supposed to be joyous events, not painful experiences. At least that's what I think.  

Life’s journey takes twists and turns that we don’t expect, sometimes without giving us any choice in the matter. Our family is now living through such a time. One never envisions standing across from one of the four people in the world whom you love more than any others… and have nothing to say. Yet that was my experience, and my wife's as well, as we saw our daughter for the first time in two months.

I will continue to process through the surreal event that was our daughter’s graduation for the next day or two. What I can take from it remains unknown… if I can gain anything at all.

There is a time for everything… A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.