Happy Langdon

[happylangdon]

Dear Brother

When our grandmother passed away and our parents divorced, you were my safe person. I used to love to hang out in your room, read your newspaper clippings of the North Stars, and play with your hockey gear. Remember when you told me that your old jockstrap was a mask? I do. The following years were dark. We learned that life isn’t always fair and that money can’t fix neglect. We waited patiently…

Dear Brother

[happylangdon]

Biggest Fan

Few things have changed my life as dramatically as learning how to integrate meditation into my daily life. A twenty-minute meditation can change my perspective, thus changing my attitude in any scenario. I’ve used it in good times and bad, in sickness and in health. It has been my one constant in this ever-changing adventure we call life. This doesn’t mean that I always utilize meditation, nor…

Biggest Fan

[happylangdon]

Bloom Where You Are Planted

Bloom Where You Are PlantedWritten byAl ‘Oe Vera Every story has a start and an end,But some stories twist and bend.My beginning was like most, I suppose,I wasn’t aware until I arose. My first days are a hazy blur,But love from my family, I remember for sure.They surrounded me with warmth and care,So much love, it was everywhere. One day, I was taken from my home,To a place unknown, where I…

Bloom Where You Are Planted

[happylangdon]

Drink Water

“With the exception of wisdom, I’m inclined to believe that the immortal gods have given nothing better to humanity than friendship.” — Cicero The last few months have been a string of health-related issues in our household. Mystery virus, followed by strep, followed by Covid, followed by a slew of woman issues that require surgery to remedy. My steadfast resolve to not spend the entire winter…

View On WordPress

[happylangdon]

Listen With More Than Our Ears

A few days ago, my six-year-old son and I decided to walk to a nearby lake. It was the first time we had been out of the house for a few days due to a barrage of illness, so we were anxious to get out there. It was on and off freezing rain, but it was hovering around 33 degrees with not much wind, so I only put on a sweatshirt over my tank top. Thankfully, I ensured my son was dressed…

View On WordPress

[happylangdon]

Mellow Mushroom

When we arrived in Fort Worth, the first cracks of discomfort were starting to show. Jessica was becoming restless and was kicking the back of the driver’s seat where my husband diligently navigated through hordes of traffic. Our son had broken free from his several hour-long tablet trance and was now asking questions, like when we were going to arrive? We had driven almost 1000 miles in two days…

View On WordPress

[happylangdon]

Beep...Beep

“The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.”  -Marcus Aurelius Last night my husband’s oxygen level was low, so he went to the Emergency room for a breathing treatment, steroids, and antibiotics. Three out of the four members of our household have had the same treatment over the last month, so it wasn’t much of a surprise. (Beep…Beep). However, I myself am still…

View On WordPress

[happylangdon]

Forty Years by Your Side

At 4:53 a.m., our little puppy alarm clock named Diesel went off. I awoke wedged between our two children and had to scooch down off the bottom of the bed to avoid waking them up. You were not in the bed, which made me smile. Your absence meant that you slept in one of our children’s bedrooms, which meant that you probably got a whole night’s rest. After the animals were fed and the kitchen was…

View On WordPress

[happylangdon]

Twenty-Six Days

“One exaggerates, imagines, anticipates affliction. Do not let us build a second story to our sorrow by being sorry for our sorrow.” –  Marcus Aurelius. Twenty-six days. That’s when it all began. A spontaneous trip to an indoor pool we were not familiar with, which we thoroughly enjoyed for fourteen minutes until, unbeknownst to us, we were called out for not having a proper reservation. We left…

View On WordPress

[happylangdon]

Writers Write

“If you are tempted to look outside yourself for approval, you have compromised your integrity.” Epictetus Once upon a time, a little girl lived in her head. Her feelings and experiences were held inside, much like a Venus fly trap that draws inward its prey – after enough time has passed, whatever it was became no more. This little girl was never content with what was presented as life and…

View On WordPress

[happylangdon]

Dear Buckley

This morning I forgot you were gone. I expected to see you at the bottom of the stairs, spinning in circles with excitement for the day. But you were not there, at least not in physical form. It’s been seventy-six days since you left your decrepit and failing body behind. Seventy-six days is a blink of time from when we first met thirteen years ago, yet somehow it feels longer. Grief slows the…

View On WordPress

[happylangdon]

Gopher State XLVIII

In 1993, a group of teenagers from the local Alano Society invited me to come with them to something called “Gopher State.” It was in a hotel and there were a lot of people I didn’t know, and I didn’t really understand why I was there, so shortly after arriving, I left and walked four miles back to my childhood home. At the time, I just figured that was something people from Alano societies did,…

View On WordPress

[happylangdon]

Writers Write

Life is less complicated than we think it to be. For over a decade, I wrote without readers and left my dreams of becoming a writer to the distant future – truly believing that the rest was out of my control. The idea of producing works for the exchange of money or to write simply for the art of writing – releasing my words out into the wild without expectation or regret seemed an impossible…

View On WordPress

[happylangdon]

Santa Claus Versus Shang-Chi

“If your plan doesn’t work – change the plan, not the goal.” – 16-Year-Old Afghan Refugee Summer is almost here. End of the school year activities are in full swing, and the endless buffets of graduation open houses are on the horizon. There is an optimism in the air, as each new season brings with it expectations and hope. There are camping trips, lazy pool days, squirt gun fights, picnics, and…

View On WordPress

[happylangdon]

Checking In...

Just Checking In…. “Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.” – Aldous Huxley Life has picked up pace in our household over the last few months. Happenstance mixed with a bit of grief for our beloved dog whose health is ailing. Sprinkled with the utter chaos that follows young children, leaving behind a trail of sticky…

View On WordPress

[happylangdon]

Shine Brighter

When I was about seventeen years old, my mother’s boyfriend bought me a handheld crank flashlight as a gift. Although I was grateful to be thought of, I didn’t think much of the gift. It got put away into a drawer along with the other thoughtful but not-so-useful gifts I had accumulated over the years. It wasn’t until we had a power outage, did I even remember that I had it and that in fact it…

View On WordPress

[happylangdon]

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

When I was about seven years old, I learned that some people in my family had trouble with their vision. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but it never really left my mind. I remember doing tasks in the dark or with my eyes closed as “practice” in case I ever went blind. It wasn’t an anxious activity and I truly never really worried about it but I did take comfort in knowing that I could go…

View On WordPress