<\/p>\n
My mom believed in the number three\u2014three alarms, three thank-yous, three hugs. If I tried to skip one, she\u2019d stop me. \u201cOne more,\u201d she\u2019d say. \u201cOr I\u2019ll worry.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I was older, she told me why. As a child, her brother Danny walked her to school. They always shared three pats before parting. One day they only did two. That afternoon, he was killed in an accident. She never skipped the third again.<\/p>\n
The habit became mine too. Three breaths before hard moments. Three calls. Three kisses goodbye. When I left for college, she asked me to call every day at 3:00. The one day I forgot, the fear on both sides said everything.<\/p>\n
Years later, she didn\u2019t answer her phone. I found her after a minor heart attack. She recovered, and we settled into quiet routines\u2014coffee, stories, three hugs. Then one day, I knocked three times and got no answer. She was gone.<\/p>\n
In her things, I found a letter. She said the rituals helped her survive loss and fear\u2014and she wanted me to live free. Keep what brings peace. Let go of what brings fear.<\/p>\n
Now I still do the threes sometimes, but out of love, not panic. I have a daughter of my own. When she asked why I give three kisses, I said, \u201cBecause it means we mean it.\u201d<\/p>\n
We carry the people we love in small habits. What matters isn\u2019t the ritual\u2014it\u2019s why we keep it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My mom believed in the number three\u2014three alarms, three thank-yous, three hugs. If I tried to skip one, she\u2019d stop me. \u201cOne more,\u201d she\u2019d say. \u201cOr I\u2019ll worry.\u201d When I was older, she told me why. As a child, her brother Danny walked her to school. They always shared three pats before parting. One …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10806,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10804\/revisions\/10806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}