House of Alcina

What was the best compliment you’ve received?

When people tell you that you’re a light in their life. That’s such a meaningful thing to say to someone. My mom always told me that growing up. My nickname was Sunshine because I could make her smile and I would always try to focus on the good things when the wheels were falling off of our family.

Now I love it when people express that to me as an adult. My friend Jessie from Chicago will randomly send me things about being a light, and Gary always says his favorite thing about me is that I can make something beautiful from such a mess. That’s about the biggest compliment I’d ever want to receive. My step dad tells me that I’m a light in his life as well, and that I have brought so much laughter to his life after losing my Mom and his own daughter. I love that I can fill that space for him.

I think I love people in my life very well because it feels so good to love and in return be loved. I can say that I’ve made it to 48 with mostly the same friendships and people in my life that I’ve had for as long as I can remember, and I’ve met some amazing people along the way.

There have been some friends I’ve grown apart from the last few years, because unfortunately, we aren’t all made to fit into each others lives perfectly. I had a few really rough years of abusing alcohol and suffering with depression, and I wasn’t a great version of myself, but I’m now 3 years sober and loving who I am again. I have to respect anyone’s choice to pull away from me during that time. I was grieving all over the place. It was a mess.

Unfortunately politics, religion and other things sometimes play a role of losing contact with people. We’re supposed to love one another, but God also tells us to be careful and picky about the company we choose. Discernment in our relationships is important because we become like the company we keep. I lost a very, very good friend and ex neighbor because her husband was extremely out of bounds with me at times. Men can be gross, but women would rather remove the friend than accept that their husband is a pig. Things like that are out of our control and as much as it hurts you have to roll with it. I loved her a lot, and it’s such a shame she couldn’t just hold him accountable without it driving a wedge between us, but I probably wouldn’t want a female around either if my husband acted like that.

Sorry, I always venture off into stories because I write like my mind works. 🤪😆

I’ll wrap it up by saying… I’ve been really blessed with people in my life who love me and value me. In the end those are the only ones who matter. The ones who don’t like you, or don’t think you’re worthy don’t really make a difference in your life anyway. There’s not one person on Earth that can stop God from doing what he wants to do in your life except for YOU. Be a light to those close to you, and they’ll in return be a light to you. They are certainly my lights as well. We bounce off of each other! 💜

Alright! I gotta get up and moving. We’re picking up Alan at the airport later and Rachel and her husband are coming tomorrow I think. We’re going to have a house full this week.

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