DIY Cheerleader

When I was born, Mom's friends joshed that - at 42 - she was a do-it-yourself grandma.  At 63, am embracing being my own DIY cheerleader! 

Got to thinking about this last week, after a good buddy said she wished someone could give me a tip of the hat like I gave Mim. Reality is that no one could - no close friends from college or high school or even childhood to spill the beans.  

Still, as I read Ed Catmull's Creativity, Inc & thought about my professional experiences, found myself wanting to lay them out, much like I'd shared memories of Mim.  Was held back by the fear that others would think me self-aggrandizing.  Torn.

As I make my way through You Are a Badass, pushed past my fear of others' tsk-tsking to freeing myself to be my own best booster. 

If you think it is cocky & big-headed of me to talk about some of my own amazing moments, then so be it.  Personally, have come to believe we'd all be better served in this life if we spent at least as much time considering what we've done right or well or even fabulously as we do fixating on what we did wrong or dismally or disastrously. 

Had always thought of my own accomplishments as small scale compared to Mim's;  thinking about them over the past few weeks, realized that while only a couple were flashy, all are worth a cheer - at least from me!

HPG - thanks for the friendly nudge.  Ed - thanks for bringing so many ancient memories back to mind.  Jen - thanks for setting off the spark!

Supernaturally surrealistic ~OR~ ....

... is life meant to be anything less?  I opt for the former!

 

For me, 2015 was the year when it FINALLY hit home ~ ~  that my life is blessed beyond measure, that every smidgen of what came before accumulated into a stunning NOW, that time folds in & on & around itself, that age is an artificial construct, that everyone - everyone - is trying to do his or her best, that everyone  - everyone - is deserving of our blessing & best wishes for a full healthy happy life.  

That we are - whatever our age - filled with stars, that age doesn't diminish the reality we are created to do everything we can to be everything we can, that life is more awesome & astonishing & flagrantly joyful than we can begin to see describe experience.

 

That the ordinary is extraordinary, we aren't put on earth to bitch & moan but to celebrate & LIVE, all of us are interconnected, we are HERE to make the most of what we are & to help others do the same, we are created to embody seize celebrate unfettered love.

 

One of our greatest temptations is to diminish the normal our Creator intended, feeling more comfortable with the easily grasped than with the supernaturally FABULOUS.  Bah!  We are all created to be social emotional spiritual entrepreneurs.  Our natural set point is way way way beyond our meager imaginations.  We're born to ZOOM! 

 

 

 

 

"Lord, grant me the perception..."

A year or so before Mom was reunited with her O! Best Beloved, she started to console with about something or other by saying, "Lord, grant me the perception..."  

She didn't get any farther along, because I cut her off.  "Yeah, yeah, yeah - the Serenity Prayer.  Not exactly what I need right now."

Had I let her finish, would have discovered it was not what she sought to share, before being so rudely cut off: 
Lord, grant me the perception
to see the problem, 
wisdom to find a solution,
courage to carry it out - I pray thee.

Just came across the photocopy of those words, in Mom's handwriting.  I'd been so affected by the words - and the situation - had asked her to copy them out.  

Those words, in her handwriting, serve as a constant reminder to never presume, 
to LISTEN to what's being said (not what I anticipate is coming), 
to relax enough into the listening that I don't leap to interruptions, 
to acknowledge in my heart that what I'm sure is right often isn't.

Yesterday, my heart was pinged thinking that my Missouri family hadn't let me know about the death of my beloved cousin, Peggy.  Turns out that they HAD tried, but were calling my cell phone, which had been lost just around that time.  They must have thought that I was getting the voice mail messages they were leaving & not calling back. 

Lord, grant me the perception 

to remember, always & forever, 

that what I think I know might not be so;  

to look for clarification rather than feel hurt; 

that people communicate in different ways, via different modes; 

that we are all, at the most basic level, doing the best we can - I pray thee.

 

"It's magic time!" - Jack Lemmon, role model

GASP!  This afternoon, John & I uncharacteristically asked a friend - a very good one - who stopped by to come in a visit.  We figure it's the first time in about ten years since we last purposely invited someone into the house, but she's a dear enough friend that, for once, we cared less about the potential of too many cats & more about have a nice little gab.   

All fears disappeared when she looked with around our bedecked-for-the-holidays living room with delight & declared, "It feels like magic!"  


Many laughter-filled moments later, after she left with a cheery wave & her trademark ripple of chortly laughter, found myself thinking about magic.  Which got me thinking about Jack Lemmon, who started each scene with, "It's magic time!"     

Which got me thinking - pretty good way to kick off every moment of our life.   

How many of us partner with magic?  How many even realize the astonishing things that can happen when we make welcoming magic a regular part of our  lives?
 

      

Magic was John Uhler Lemmon III's enthusiastic partner in both his professional & personal life.  He was born into a well-off family that loved him, attended top schools, graduated from Harvard in '47, served in the US Navy as an ensign, worked in radio & on Broadway before making his TV debut in 1949.  His 1954 movie debut - in a lead role, no less - was opposite Judy Holliday in It Should Happen To You. 

It really was magic time - the next year found Jack sharing billing with Ward Bond, William Powell, Henry Fonda & Jimmy Cagney in Mr. Roberts - and nabbing the 1955 Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his Ensign Pulver!  

Over the years, Jack Lemmon received nominations for comedies (Some Like It Hot (1959), even more dramas (Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The China Syndrome (1979), Tribute (1980) & Missing (1982), however you categorize The Apartment (1960), and a Best Actor Oscar for Save the Tiger (1973). 

In 1985, he was back on Broadway in Long Day's Journey Into Night.  

While Jack Lemmon's first marriage ended after just six years, his second lasted from 1962 until his death in 2001.  

Through it all, Jack Lemmon never lost his reputation as a decent guy.  As Kevin Spacey wrote in his foreward to Chris Lemmon's book about his father, "Jack Lemmon was a credit to his profession because he was a man whose humanity was bigger than his talent. And when you think for a moment about the size and depth of that talent, then you begin to understand how seriously he took his role as a human being.”

 

Is there any better accolade than being described as a decent person who cares about others?  I think not.  

My morning ritual begins when I first wake up, thinking about all I have to be grateful for from the previous day, sending loving thoughts to a specific person(s), looking out the window to the back yard & greeting the world with all the awe it deserves, going downstairs to the front room to say my namastes to the four corners of my world, heading out on a walk around the block before coming home to feed the cats, then reading at least ten pages in an inspiring book.  
 
Whew!  That's a lot to just start the day, but am extending that extensive ritual a bit more.  After my 5th & final namaste (to All That Is), will set a smile on my face & head out to the day with a jaunty, "It's magic time!"  

Jack Lemmon - not a guardian angel, but one heckuva role model!

Spooky wonderful - Edie Weinstein

No other description - spooky wonderful how, over the past few days, kindred spirit & soul sister Edie Weinstein keeps expressing the very AH HA!s emerging from the depths of my own heart. 

Reeled early this a.m. with the startling discovery of a great personal loss, followed by a flash of fresh disconnection with people who matter deeply to me.  As I struggled to regain my sense of center, a FB posting by Edie transformed the moment.

My dear friend talked about garnering lessons from everything that happens to us,  "lessons about assertiveness and accountability for my choices."  Amen!  

 

For all of my life, fitting into my birth family required becoming an "emotional contortionist," an image & term that speaks volumes.  How wonderful to read it this morning. (And to wonder if all of my sibs felt that way!)

Each moment is the just-right time for me to whisper a heart's request to others - departed & still with us - to "let go of the tether" on their end that keeps me bound to old stories about them & about me & about our relationships.  

My NOW reality is embracing a new sense of relationship with myself, outside of a sense of the old.  Just yesterday, I wrote, "Oft times, things don't turn out as we hope, but there is solace in at least seeing what is.  Then, there's hope of unsticking & moving forward."

Edie - thanks.  We seem to be in parallel places in this here & now. Ask & it shall be given.  Here I am, seeking greater awareness & appreciation of emotional connection; lo & behold, a reminder of a super special one shows up on my FB wall.  

Spooky wonderful!