A Proud Father ©️
Tag Archives: family love
What Remains Is Love ©️
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We’ve covered a lot of ground together lately. Old roads. Deep cuts. Family and failure. Ghosts of love. The long way to becoming a man.
It’s strange, isn’t it? How you can live a thousand lifetimes inside one life—and still feel like there’s more you meant to say. People you meant to hold a little longer. A version of yourself you were trying to meet halfway across the years.
And maybe that’s just it.
Maybe we don’t end up where we thought we would. Maybe we don’t get the house full of children, or the girl back, or the big break. Maybe the world knocks us sideways, takes a few dreams out behind the barn, and leaves us with scars we didn’t ask for.
But we lived.
And we loved.
And that counts.
I’ve been the lost brother, the misunderstood son, the man who ran from love and the one who stayed too long in the wrong places. I’ve been alone. I’ve been held. I’ve been someone I couldn’t trust, and now… somehow… I’m someone I can.
And through it all—through psych wards and porch lights, through cold rivers and warm memories—what remains?
Love.
The steady, quiet kind. The kind that doesn’t demand anything from you. The kind that just says, “Come in. You’re home now.”
So to my family—thank you for carrying me when I couldn’t walk. To the woman I lost—thank you for teaching me how to feel. To my baby sister—keep shining, kid. To my brother across the sea—your strength doesn’t go unnoticed. To the sister I’m still waiting on—your place is here when you’re ready. And to myself… yeah, you made it, man. I’m proud of you.
This is Chris in the Morning, KBHR 570 AM, signing off—for now.
Wherever you are… whoever you are… be gentle with your ghosts. Speak kind to your reflection. And remember:
The world may not always hold you like you hoped… but love will.
Just Heart ©️
Good morning, Cicely.
There are some journeys we take alone. Not by choice, but by storm. Life has a funny way of rerouting the road just when you think you know the map. And suddenly, you’re not the person you thought you were going to be.
You’re not the golden boy anymore.
Not the rising star.
Not the dreamer with the straight path and the perfect arc.
You’re something else entirely.
You’re someone who went through it. And I mean really went through it.
I’ve spent time in places people whisper about—psych wards, jail cells, corners of the mind where the lights flicker and nothing makes sense. I’ve lost years to silence, confusion, and pain. I’ve watched dreams get shattered like glass on stone, and had to pick up the pieces with shaking hands.
There were nights no one called. Days no one knew where I was. Times even I didn’t know who I was.
And still… somehow… I’m here.
My family didn’t always understand. How could they? Mental illness doesn’t come with instructions. It doesn’t wear a name tag. It doesn’t sit politely in the corner. But even in the dark, they loved me. Fiercely. Imperfectly. Consistently. And I owe them everything.
There was a love once—a young one. One of those first-flame, heart-open, foolish-and-forever kind of things. I let it slip away. Maybe I ran. Maybe I wasn’t ready. Maybe I didn’t believe I deserved it. And I’ve never found that kind of depth again. That’s a ghost I carry. Not with bitterness, just with a quiet what if.
I never had children. And maybe I never will. That used to haunt me. But lately… I’ve started to see things differently.
Because while I may not be a father, I’ve become something else. Something I never thought I could be.
I’ve become me.
Not the broken version.
Not the could’ve-been.
Just me.
Someone I trust.
Someone I’m proud to carry through this world.
This is Chris in the Morning—KBHR 570 AM—and if you’re listening, and you’ve been through the long night… just know there’s still morning. There’s still music. There’s still time.
And sometimes, surviving becomes your greatest work.
For The Sister Who Forgot Her Own Light ©️
Good morning, Cicely.
You ever love someone so much that it hurts to watch them drift? Not because they’ve done anything wrong. But because they’re not themselves anymore. Because you can feel them slipping—not away from the world, but away from you… and maybe away from who they used to be.
I want to talk about my sister.
She used to laugh more. Talk more. She used to pick up the phone just to say hi, to tell me what ridiculous thing her son did that morning. She used to lean in—like we were part of the same rhythm, the same music. Like family meant something that couldn’t be bent.
But now… things are different.
She married a man I don’t trust. And maybe that’s not polite to say on the air—but sometimes truth isn’t polite. Sometimes it just is. I don’t like the way he talks to her. I don’t like the way he makes her question herself. Like she’s never quite enough unless she’s quieter, smaller, less. And I hate the way he keeps her separated—from us, from the people who love her, from the parts of herself that used to shine so naturally.
It’s subtle, the way it happens. That kind of control doesn’t scream—it whispers. It makes her think it’s her fault. Like she’s too emotional, too dramatic, too needy for wanting the kind of connection that every human deserves.
And I want her to know… it’s not her fault.
She is not too much. She is not wrong. She is not a burden.
She’s my sister. And I miss her.
I miss her stories. I miss our jokes. I miss sitting on the porch with her and talking about nothing while her son chases butterflies in the grass.
And yeah—I miss him too. Her little boy. My nephew. The kind of kid who still believes in magic. I hope he’s still smiling. I hope he still feels safe. I hope he knows he’s loved, even if the grown-ups around him are tangled up in things too big for him to understand.
If I had my way, she’d come back home. She’d pack up, grab her boy, and come back to where she’s seen again. Heard. Held. Where love doesn’t cost you your voice. Where the past can breathe again and the future isn’t built on someone else’s permission.
But life isn’t that simple. People leave when they’re ready. Not when we want them to. And so… I wait. I hold space. I keep the porch light on.
This is Chris in the Morning, KBHR 570 AM, sending a message into the mist:
To my sister—wherever you are—you’re still you. We still love you. We still remember who you are. And we’re still here… whenever you’re ready to come home.
Bootsteps and Lullabies ©️
He big. He got boots that make loud sounds and he say my name like a song but also like a truck. He smell like outside and hot sauce and hugs. I don’t know all the words he say, but I like the way he say ‘em. He say, “You got a strong back, boy. Gonna be tough like your daddy, maybe tougher.” I don’t know what that mean, but I laugh and he laugh too, and then we go outside and I hold a stick like him. He talks like a cowboy but not the scary kind. He talks like he knows the sky and the dirt and why dogs bark.
He call me “little man” and tell me “you ain’t gotta cry for nothin’ that don’t bleed.” Mama say “Don’t tell him that!” but I think it sound brave. He pick me up high and I see everything—trees, sun, his truck. He let me sit on his lap when he drive slow down the field, and he say, “Don’t tell your mama,” but I do anyway and she say “Lord help me.” I like when he come ‘cause he makes the house full. Full of words and stories and smiles that feel like firecrackers inside me.
Sometimes I don’t know what he means but it don’t matter ‘cause I know he loves me big. Bigger than his voice. Bigger than his truck. Maybe bigger than the whole world.