Let’s Celebrate the Women in our Community!
Women who are following their passion.
Women who will share their wisdom.
Women who will make you laugh.
Women who will remind you that we are all connected.
Women who will inspire you to make a difference!
Looking forward to sharing videos with you soon!
The morning sun filters through the window and falls in a blanket of warmth around me, creating a perfect writing space. In my mind, I an taken back to a scene from my childhood, where I am wrapped in my Dad’s old sweater curled up in a chair that sits in a south facing window. Like a lazy dog, I am soaking up the rays.
I wore that storm cloud gray sweater every Sunday as far back as I can remember. I have no memory of Dad in this cardigan- the flying geese patterned sweater with three buttons always graced my body-first to my knees and twice around me, until I was older and its length hit me at mid thigh. By then, even the washing couldn’t return the sweater to any original shape and it hung wide in the back and low in the front, yet three seasons of the year, it was my Sunday sweater.
Sunday was a sacred sabbath day at our house. Saturday was work day, cleaning the house or doing yard work, so having a day to decide what I wanted to do was amazing. After church in the morning, we would pick up Grandma at her apartment and bring her home for family day. Dad made the best breakfast with sausage, scrambled eggs and orange juice, balanced out with my mom’s homemade cinnamon rolls. It was like breakfast at a restaurant every Sunday!
As soon as I was out of my church clothes, I would don the old gray sweater, wrapping myself up in permission to do nothing if I chose. I often took two hour naps while mom and grandma made cookies and put dinner in the oven. Sometimes I re-arranged the furniture in my room by sitting on the floor, putting my back against the dresser or bed, and using my legs to move the pieces to new corners of the room. Or I would sit at the kitchen table, finishing schoolwork while munching on Grandma’s cookies. Often a family game of cards got us all laughing, or a game of scrabble with Grandma kept me on my toes. The afternoons always brought the Bronco games which Grandma and Dad watched religiously. My religion was more apt to be the Wonderful World of Disney. I was bathed and in pajamas by six so I could watch a Disney movie before I went to bed. Sometimes, the sweater even took the place of my robe, on days when I needed a little extra love. Mostly, my Sunday sweater gave me a sense that all was right with the world. Whether it was family time, or the magic of the old gray sweater, I don’t know.
These days, I am the mom who makes the waffles, cookies, and banana bread to fill the freezer. I am the one to put something in the oven or crockpot for dinner. I am the one who pays the bills and makes sure there is food in the fridge for lunches during the week. My mind seems to be in a constant state of surveillance, looking for all the things that need to be done. I long for the days of Dad’s old gray sweater. I wish I could wrap it around my shoulders and feel the same sense of ease I did then. I wonder if I could still smell the sunshine in its stitches, or if I could feel the slowing of my heartbeat. I want to surround myself with the feeling that all is right with the world.
I realize as I write this that our family has lost some sense of Sabbath, and every day has become a work day of sorts. Although I see us bringing play into other parts of the week, there is no longer a sacred day where work is put aside, and we have a chance to slow down our breathing and take a two hour nap if we want. School work looms large and it always seems to spill onto Sundays. Tony’s work schedule takes up half the day. Yet writing this brings back that old sweater feeling, and I want to give the girls permission to do nothing if they choose. The question is how do I bring that about in a world that is so focused on production?
I would love your input. How do you take time for yourself in this busy world? What day is a sabbath day for you? How do you keep holy your time so you can rejuvenate? This seems to be an issue for many of us, one that I will revisit again. Please give me your feedback so I can help our girls find this magical gift called Sabbath. I want them to know what it feels like to don a Sunday sweater full of free time, sunshine, and love.
Natural turkeys are on sale at Whole Foods and I want to take advantage of the sale. Knowing that a turkey is all I am picking up, I neglect to snag a small cart as I am walking into the store. I head back to the meat department and find the frozen turkeys I am looking for. I scoop one into my arms and then have a brilliant idea to pick up a second for another occasion.
Take a minute to form the mental picture because even now as I am thinking about it, I see how ridiculous I must have looked. A frozen turkey under each arm, I make my way to the front of the store.
Not even ten feet later, I am realizing that the cold is too much for me and I will never make it. At that same time, a woman rounds the corner into the aisle and upon seeing me, bursts out into a huge belly laugh. “You look silly,” she giggles. I laugh too and my numb hands tell me it is time to get a cart. I put the turkeys back where I got them and when I turned around, my giggling friend offers me her cart since she is almost done and has a bag to carry her groceries.
She tells me the story of working in a restaurant where they carried big jugs to clean up at closing time, and the wait staff would kid each other. “Nice jugs,” they would say. So when she saw me, all she could think about was “Nice breasts!” Now the two of us are standing in an aisle, hunched over with laughter.
What a wonderful way to brighten up my shopping trip: create a scene that causes someone to really laugh, and then laugh at myself too.
Sharing the story when I get home encourages another comment that continued to raise my endorphin level. My husband listens to the funny story, and then in jest, adds, “I bet that was the first time you have ever been complemented in public about your breasts!” Yes, indeed.
What a great gift that laughter brings to a busy day. Laughter can make all the gray in your day disappear momentarily, and if you are lucky, remind you that life is too short to be serious all the time.
Wishing you a day filled with laughter, even if you have to pick up frozen turkeys to make it happen.
An evening walk through the park yesterday reminded me that indeed, spring is here, and not just witnessed in the flowering trees showing off their white and pink blossoms. Along with the tulips and daffodils, love and friendship and happiness was in the air!
Babies and toddlers were enjoying the playground, their laughter ringing through the trees. On the blacktop, a pick-up game of basketball sent the balls flying through the hoops. A little further down the path, a couple of families were playing flag football after their picnic dinner, right next to the South American game of soccer.
Even the dogs were enjoying the outdoors, one chasing a stick until it got stuck in a tree, and another running off, thinking it was more fun to romp through the grass than to return the frisbee to its owner.
People running, sitting, walking, talking, laughing, enjoying the beautiful spring day. If you looked close enough, you could see harmony in the way the space was used, enough room for all of us to enjoy the day together. I love sharing smiles with others, a gift to remind us that we aren’t so different after all.
There is a wonderful idea that we all may feel like we are on separate islands, living our lives day to day. The reality is that underneath the water level, all the islands are connected and we really do belong to and have the responsibility to care for one another. We all bring different gifts to the world( thank God!) and when we treat each other with the wonder and awe in which we were created, we can live in harmony.
Spring is definitely in the air, and in my heart. And on a Sunday in the park, I witnessed a slice of humanity that made me smile and made me aware of how good life is!
