In response to my last post, I loved Kate's words about writing "to clarify me and because it feels good." So, as my wonderful weekend rolls to a close, here are some of the moments that i want to hang on to (or clarify) for ME!Things to remember:
- Wearing my heart covered rain boots always makes me feel better.
- Catching up with an old friend who is also a joy-filled young dad is a great way to start a Friday.
- Having lunch with a friend is wonderful food for the soul.
- Quiet time can lead to amazing inspiration for new creative works (more details later).
- Soul collage is good, hard work.
- The veil really is thinner this time of year.
- Cafe Campagne provides a little taste of Paris right here in Seattle.
- Kathleen Norris is a regular person. She sometimes doesn't journal for weeks and has been known to resort to watching "America's Next Top Model" for respite.
- Soltura sisters are the best family outside of family!
- My beautiful boy celebrated 8 months of hard earned sobriety this weekend.
- Having an amazing live-in photographer has its perks!
- Blogging buddies come to the rescue when you need them most.
- God is good.
- The wrath of a 16 year old daughter who says our home is hell on earth. We have the worst family ever. She detests living here. We are boring, have no passion and respond like robots. (I guess, there goes my nomination for mother of the year. Sigh.)
Thanks for reading and I hope you had a delicious weekend and a great start for the week ahead. Peace.
If you are wondering about the photos, you'll have to forgive my sense of humor. After leaving Kathleen Norris' delightful spiritual & inspirational talk at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), we noticed that we were right across the street from "The Lusty Lady" and that the SAM sign was missing one of its lights. Teehee. I couldn't resist!!!!
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17 comments:
What a wonderful weekend! Of course minus the teenage outburst, lol. I read that and a wave of dread flooded over me for a second. I have one tween and it's just beginning. And I'm scared.
:)
a.
andie--thanks for stopping by...i have all sorts of platitudes about the teen years...bottom line--they are scary...AND they have their moments of delight :-)
Such a delight to share parts of this wonderful weekend with you from Kathleen Norris to french dining and even to the funny moments of catching a glimpse of the erotic theater across the street and the "missing" letter.
I am so glad you can have a long list of gratitudes like this to counterbalance hurtful words that are said from their own place of insecurity.
Love you! C
wonderful gratitude list! i wonder if sometimes my 9 year old isn't channeling a teenager; if her outbursts are this bad now, i dread to think how bad they'll be in 5 years or so! mother of the year seems perpetually out of my grasp as well;-)
btw, i found your words on the poetry party post at the abbey of the arts blog beautiful and inspiring!
Erectoral collage huh??
What a lovely list of things to be grateful for. And actually, at least your daughter is telling you all these things, not going off into an impenetrable silence. But sympathies!
In regards to your daughter I say the serenity prayer and know that this too shall pass..thank goodness and if it doesn't eventually they grow up and move out! LOL!
Great gratitude list.
Thank you for your blog!
GM~*
Lucy!!! Yes, Soltura family is amazing......and your son's sobriety......also something to celebrate.....yes, God is good. Love, Pamela
Ahhh, WONDERFUL combination of things, both sharing and solutudinal, both fun and serious. I love this list. Congratulations to your son. Wheeeee!!!
That makes a good weekend :)
Whereas being the mother of a 16 year old female must be such a terribly scary place. Those things are powerful, and self-absorbed, and bitchy, and mean, and hurting, and in such a horrible place - I wouldn't be 16 again for a million bucks.
She'll be like the rest of us, Lucy. Hit our 20s and feel guilt for the way we treated our mothers :(
Such wonderful celebrations and good times from the weekend! So nice to hear! The outburst - arghhhhh....just when we think it's safe to swim again:) Sorry.
Loved the photos. I had to read it out loud a couple of times because it was so funny - the erectoral title, that is....
And I think sleeping in your happy boots is a great idea!!!
C--it was truly a delight to share those experiences with you. i should have given you credit for your keen eye on the marquees :-) and insecurity seems to come along with most teenagers, but it is definitely not always easy to take in!
square peg--thank you for stopping by and commenting. let's hope that your pre-teen is just getting things out of her system early and you can sail through the teen years!
tess--unfortunately that outburst came in the midst of interminable silence. it is no fun!!!
GM--the serenity prayer is one of my fave's and definitely applies in this situation. i love your attitude...grow out of it or move on :-) sad, but true.
hey pamela--glad to see you pop in! got to hug and have breakfast with your/our sister, synde, yesterday :-)
sue--yep it was a grand weekend with a good combo of activities. re: the teen...i'd be ok if she bypassed the guilt and just came back to her pre-teen loving self!!!
SS--christine actually spied those photos. i just happened to be the one with the camera.
i think i should have slept in the happy boots last night since sleep did not come too well. aarrggghhh, is right!!!
xoxoxooxoxox
Dear Lucy's Daughter,
Our youngest was about your age when she presented us with a written list of exactly how we were the WORST PARENTS IN THE WORLD EVER! I sure wish we had saved that list. When she had her first baby I suggested that now was her moment to become the best parent in the world ever since she already knew all the things not to do. It was not well received advice. In the years since, her now two children are four and ten, and it's just amazing how often she wants a little loving counsel from Dianna (not often from me).
CP
pjs and happy boots -- that sounds like the perfect outfit to deal with a teenager! Nothing quite shuts a teenager up faster than adults deliberately embarrassing themselves in public. I remember wearing a benzene ring on my head because my hands were full. My students were horrified what nonscience students would think of me. Like I could care!
Glad your weekend was majoritarilly happy (as my students would say).
I have no idea if this is helpful but here goes - my daughter was an angel at 16. A simmering, seething below the surface angel. It wasn't safe for her to do that thing teenagers need to do in order to start the individuation process. I wouldn't let her. So she had to bottle it up instead. So not good in the long run. In retrospect I wish she had let loose a time or two....it would have helped the maturation process. Myself, I was 38 before I felt like I individuated from my mother. I'm hoping it doesn't take so long for my daughter.
Oh, and I really, really hope my daughter has a child one day. There can be no other way for her to fully know how hard I tried.
As Hope seemed to say, this painful process of individuation has to take place. Be consoled, in a way. If a mother were distant and seemed not to be bonded warmly to her child, there would be no crisis of individuation. That's the way it was for me, unfortunately. And for her mom before her, poor thing.
dear cp--i am sure daughter would be thrilled to read your words :-)
barbara--yes, pjs and happy boots are enough to mortify any 'normal' person, but a teenager...oh my...how can she possibly be related to this deranged woman who calls herself Mom?!?!??
no wonder your students adored you :-)
hope--i appreciate your words very much. i intellectually "get" the process of individuation and realize all of this is "normal" "healthy" (i think), but it is still NO fun in the midst!
i also remember my mother saying, "you will never know how much you can love someone until you have a child." (i have a feeling she was speaking of the challenging side, too!)
No, it wouldn't be fun. Not one bit. I would've blown a gasket. Or two. Hang in there.
Great comments here :)
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