Brought to you by things my mother told me never to do and the fall, 'cause I like it.
My mother always said we could never
1. Get a tattoo. I didn't and then she died so I never can.
2. Take out gum at church and certainly never in public unless "you have enough to share with everyone". Everyone is a lot of damn people.
3. Whisper. She hated whispering and to this day I do, too. Whispering oozes of things you want to say to one person and not to many persons. Whispering is about things that are private. I'm much more the public sort.
And to be honest, this past month has been a brainful. So, until I could gather the thoughts in my pretty, dirty blonde, roots showing head I felt it best to stay on the silent side of things.
The secret is though....the whisper in your ear though....the thing you know though is that there are things that sit heavy on my heart and for today, I'll share the ones that comes easily to mind:
I'm embarrassed for complaining about not having a car for two weeks, getting a rental today and then seeing a homeless man riding a bicyle with his belongings. I'm tearing up now thinking about how ungrateful I sounded this past 14 days. I have a beautiful, safe home and heat and water and sometimes electricity when I remember to pay the bill. And there is food to eat and people to check on me. And seeing a man near 80 years old quietly riding his dilapitated bicycle loaded with the contents of his life made me shudder. I'm sad tonight about that. It's not okay and being unsettled about it is good.
At my very core, I'm brilliantly scatterbrained. I could start a million companies and, more than likely, at least ten more tonight with a good cup of hot chocolate in hand. It wouldn't do you or me or anyone else any good. I don't like that about me. I want to do one thing well and then maybe add a second thing.
I'm sort of selfish. Yah. I've been tired of late. I've wanted Me Time and not You Time and finally understand when people have asked the same of me. Occassionally you just need to put the "Closed For Business" sign up and mine is going up more often than it used to. For sanity, for business, for the sake of growing a personal life that sometimes bleeds into a very public life, I need to once in awhile put up the sign. I hope you'll love me in spite of that. I hope you'll trust I'll come back more energized when I open for business each time next.
I get frustrated. I was sitting at Happy Nails getting a pedicure today and a grown daughter and her mom were sitting side by side completely ignoring each other on their mobiles. On the rare occassion they would say something to each other but it was limited. Then they would go back to their phones. I wanted to scream, "Tell each other you love each other! Say you're mad. Say you're happy. Say something!" I wonder sometimes if it's better if I simply pick up a magazine and disengage but I'm not sure how to once I've put my life in Drive.
Those are some of my secrets. The only time my mom said it was okay to whisper was in libraries or, I guess, at funerals. Definitely, most definitely it wasn't okay to whisper to tell a secret. "What you have to say to her, you can say to everyone."
So...Everyone...I'm a human being but you already knew that. And I love that you love me in spite of that.
A couple more lessons for the road, shall we?
1. Imagine closing every door gently. Say goodbye to The Slam.
2. Celebrate things like National Peanut Butter Cup Day.
3. Bake rather than buy. Your perfect is prettier than their perfection.
4. Read your pissy emails three times before you send them and delete them before you send them. So, umm, don't send them.
5. Let people cut in front of you to build your patience.
6. Don't pick Pre Middle Age fights. You're too Pre Middle Age old.
7. Sure, McNuggets are made out of chicken bone and chicken eyelid paste (allegedly) but try to find a better Diet Coke.
8. Men - learn to hold doors for women even if no one taught you to growing up.
9. Women - learn to let men hold doors for you even if no one taught you to growing up.
10. Be nicer. Not meaner.
Much love in the loudest non whisper I can muster on this sweet fall night,
Cole
Just yesterday I grabbed some groceries on the way home from my fiasco of worship leading (no, it wasn't for a feast of an emotional eating extravaganza, either). Anyway, this husband/wife/daughter trio were in the grocery store. A small out-of-town grocery store. And everything that came out of the wife's mouth was snappy and hurtful and argumentative and bitter, and of course the husband and daughter responded in kind. But it all centered around the grossly embittered wife. And it was ugly beyond belief.
ReplyDeleteI was embarrassed for the family. And hurt. And angry. And I wanted to tell them all to just shut the @$^*& up and love one another.
As for the rest of your musings, you are so fascinating... And sad to hear that amidst all the events and happenings and snarky remarks, there's been a sadness on your heart lately.
I think I'm at a point in my life where I do say something to the wife if I sense any opportunity to do so with grace. Hate when that's not an option and never want to embarrass someone and add fuel to a raging fire.
ReplyDeleteSadness on my heartabout the homeless man. More of a heaviness on my heart about decisions and life and all the arrows pointing in so many places when all I want to do is chill at the well. I like the well.
Oh, and spent some time listenting to your music tonight. Thank you. I needed that.