The Party of Life Continues

So... this is pretty funny. I opened up my blog to write something and had no idea what I'd write. My secret for moments like this is that I often start blog entries with a photo I like and a title that occurs to me when I see the photo... then, weeks or months later I open it up and write something.

I sat down tonight not knowing what to write and JUST at the moment I opened it all up, I saw the title I'd chosen (still up there) and at the same time heard Tom's ipod, which is apparently set on "random", started playing Robert Earl Keene singing "The Road Goes on Forever and the Party Never Ends."

That "coincidence" is not enough, though. I sat down to write while my boys get ready for bed after we kept them up a little late having our Saturday night family party... a party we all desperately needed because the week had just zipped by, leaving us all feeling a little bit like someone riding the bullet train convertible style.

We watched a movie, ate delicious food (fresh tomatoes and basil and mozzarella with olive oil and balsamic vinegar; hot artichoke dip and chips and bread; twice baked mashed potatoes; and fried ocra), and laughed and laughed.

Life IS a party around here. Tom and I try to have a little mini-party every night or so after the kids go to bed... sometimes just graham crackers and milk at 9:00. We celebrate the victories of all sizes, learning the multiplication tables, going to your first elementary school dance, running further than you knew you could, and making it through a high-speed week. We don't think parties require guest lists and party favors, just a moment of time to forget about what is required of us and remember what has been offered to us.

So, this entry is in honor of the inSpiration of celebrations and toasts made with fizzy lemonade.

Comments

Don't Read This if You Don't Like the Word Pee

Okay... so I think I nearly broke the toilet from plopping down on it so hard to go pee. WHY did I plop instead of coming in for my usual graceful landing? Because my best friend encouraged me to go to the gym and take her weight lifting class... and because I did it... and because she's so darn encouraging that I tried to show off how MOST people who don't go to the gym for four months would really stink their first time back... but not me! I decided that I should prove that I am a superhero who can skip the gym for four months and come in looking fresh and fit and strong as an ox... okay, okay... an ox that can lift a 2kg dumbell. I decided that these sleeping muscles could SURELY do just as many squats as that cute 60 year old woman in the front row whose gluteus maximus muscles look nice and bouncy. I'm just going to have to be deliberate about which chairs I go to sit in today. Spindly antique ones are definitely NOT my best option. ...

In Honor of Writing (and Art-ing) Groups

"Turn it over one hundred times, and on the one-hundred-and-first time you'll understand... When you think you understand a teaching, when you have an interpretation of a story or character that feels comfortable or right, it's time to start over at the beginning." Vacation is letting me turn things over, turning over the perceptions, the interpretations I've held on to so tightly. And, I know I said I wouldn't write,but there are some things that just can't wait. This last week I went with my mom to visit the writing group she leads. There were nine women there, all of us interested in improving our writing. Each woman took a turn reading something she'd prepared and our indomitable leader offered us two opportunities for six-minute timed writings (topic one: the eighth dwarf, topic two: shoes). The writing was BEAUTIFUL! And here's what I learned from being in San Antonio, Texas, with a group of women I've never met: There are peopl...

Undivided Self

Palmer describes two teachers, one who found joy and success in his career, and another who did not. He attributed the joyful teacher's success to the idea that he taught "from an undivided self." He says, "In the undivided self, every major thread of one's life experience is honored, creating a weave of such coherence and strength that it can hold students and subject as well as self." The other teacher, on the other hand, projected his inner warfare onto his students. The joyful teacher enjoyed craft, while the sour teacher enjoyed nothing. The joyful teacher was "enlarged" by his teaching. The sour teacher was diminished. As teachers we are either the joyful teacher OR the sour teacher. We have days, maybe even weeks, of being the joyful teacher and days of being the sour one. In my personal experience, when I am actually in the room teaching students I am the joyful one 95% of the time. When I leave the room and enter the rest of...

The Days of Day

Search This Blog