Pennies from heaven...

It was one of those mornings. I woke up before daylight, restless with too many things racing around in my head. By the time I fell back into a sound sleep - the alarm buzzed incessantly that it was time to rise and shine. Well, get up out of bed anyway.

After dropping my good-hearted 15 year old off at his volunteer job helping with Vacation Bible School this week, I headed home knowing I needed a walk to clear my head and get, well, you know, into the day. Pretty hot, but I thought I'd keep to the shade and carry a tall cool bottle of water with me.

These summer morning walks have become a kind of prayer time. Just me, the birds, and all the lawn guys, out early in our solitary pursuits. I try to 'notice what I notice' and find myself wishing I could speak 'bird'. They sure do chatter away, and you know me, I'm dying to get in on the conversation!

Imagine my surprise when a glint caught my eye. I looked down to the curb and there sat - heads up - a shiny new penny! Minted 2011. I smiled because every time a coin finds it way into my path, I think of my mom. She's the one who taught me that they're 'pennies from Heaven.' And so, I knew she was telling me that this restless, needful day ahead of me was going to be just fine.

I'll have to tell Harrison I found it. When he was little, I passed on the 'pennies from heaven' tradition Mom had taught us. Although he was only 3 then, the next time he found a penny lying in his path he said, "Look, Mom. Granny Fran sent us some money!" And we both laughed.

So Mom, although you've been gone for almost 25 years, I know you're here. Still looking out for me, and still sending pennies - and nickels and dimes and quarters - from Heaven. I love you.

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy….

…making other plans."

It's not often that I look to John Lennon for input on my life philosophy, but this is one case where his words ring oh-so-true. The family wedding was over, and it was gorgeous! My 15 year old headed into his final exams to finish out his (thankfully) successful transition as a freshman in high school. Memorial Day and the loooonnnng weekend were headed my way with a wide-open calendar, when WHAM! The phone rang at midnight. Never a good thing.

My sweet mother-in-law had been rushed to the hospital, very ill but nobody was quite sure exactly with what. My heart started pounding, and the anxiety built. Too soon. It was much too soon after my own father had died to even begin thinking about losing another one so loved.

Fast forward to Memorial Day. She is home and doing well. The miracles of modern medicine have done their work once again, and she is recovering in her own home. My heartbeat's slowed to normal, and all is safe. But what has this taught me? What's MY lesson to be learned?

To borrow from another kitchen table philosopher, my good friend Anne, 'as soon as you think you've got it all together, you don't!' Amen, sister. I've finally had to face the fact that there is no perfect point - no matter how hard I search and try to make it real - when everything is on even keel, taken care of, safely stable, all at the same time. It just doesn't happen. As uncomfortable as it makes me, change IS life. Change … change for the better, for the worse… richer, poorer… sickness and health. You got it.

So what's my new mantra? "I am ready for everything." While I don't (as my mom used to say) 'borrow trouble', I am coming to accept that the only constant IS change, and that keeping my own center in the midst of life's ups and downs is the ONLY thing I really have any control over.

Maybe you've already realized this, and you're better at it than I am. What lessons have you learned about life happening that you can share with us? Does it blindside you when something happens out of the blue? Or have you learned how to accept it as just one more way that life happens.

Let us know? And let's learn from each other.

Weaving the web - friendship, support and sisterhood

Wikipedia says that: "Spider silk is a remarkably strong material. Its tensile strength is comparable to that of high-grade steel." Well, I'm here to tell you that spiders have nothing on a group of women gathered together! Especially around a common purpose.

This week a dear friend underwent surgery for breast cancer. From the first moment the news went around, her network of friends started spinning a stronger-than-steel web of support for her. Prayers, meals, carpools, house cleaning. The Care Calendar is up (and if you don't know about this amazing tool, check it out!) and the slots are filled. Old friends, new friends, work friends, school friends. Whatever she needs, for however long it takes. We will be there for her.

Tonight, I saw a new web being spun into existence. Another group of women. This time, from around the country, many meeting each other for the very first time. But in just minutes, bonds were being formed. Common ground identified. Needs expressed. Offers of help. Support. Sisterhood. I know from experience that although this is a brand new web, it will be just as strong - over distance and time - as the one holding my friend and her family post-surgery.

This is what we women do. What women have always done. And what every multi-tasking woman knows deep in her soul. No matter how hectic our lives, no matter our previous commitments, we are never too busy to care. To share. And to keep weaving the webs that make life worthwhile.

Making room… making space

"Mom, we need to give these away," my 15 year old said, as he held out a 2 ft. high stack of nearly new hoodies and sweatshirts. "What!?!" my we-just-bought-those-last-fall voice cried out.

"Well, you're always telling me I need to go through my stuff and weed out what I don't need," he came back. (Don't you hate it when your words come right back at you?) "And I don't have room for all these. How many hoodies does one guy need anyway?"

Out of the mouths of babes. Wisdom from my teenager. "I don't have room for stuff I don't need, and I only need so much."

WOW! Let me sit with that a minute. Really soak it in. I only need so much, and why take up space with stuff I don't need? Duplicates. Triplicates. Might-fit-into-it-one-days. Who knows when I might NEED THIS (insert word here, which could range from those too-tight sparkly evening shoes to that only used it once specialty cake pan to a not really antique but really old anything.)

It's said that one (wo)man's trash is another's treasure. Well, I've been given the map by my own progeny. Guess I'll just have to start out on the journey. You know. The one where I sake my self if I REALLY need or REALLY want something, or if its' just taking up all too valuable real estate in my house, and in my life, which could be open and waiting. Space to breathe. Space to move. Space. Just pure, plain open space. Why not today? What am I waiting for. I have the map and X marks the spot! Join me?

Do you hang onto things just because you 'may need them?' What kinds of things do you keep? Could letting them go help make space in your life? Let me know how you make room in your life this week...

Wedding Watch why? ... Part two

Well, the wedding may be over but I find myself still fascinated and watching the coverage whenever it comes on TV. The gorgeous images are in sharp contrast to the devastation that is also being pictured, where people have lost everything.

My first reaction is 'how can I feel so happy about this event across the sea, when there is so much horrific news right in my own backyard?' But the more I contemplate it, the more I realize that recognizing BOTH events are important, critical even, to really living all of life. Acknowledging that good and bad, new life and destruction, happiness and sadness in all their extremes, always co-exist. Always have and always will.

This weekend, I've had the chance to celebrate a dear friend's 45th birthday, ushering in what will undoubtedly be another full year of life. At the very same time, she is dealing with her mother's diagnosis of a malignant tumor. Today, another group of friends gathered to shower one of our own who's embarking on first time motherhood at the age of 45. She's 'big' and uncomfortable and hot and all the things that go along with the 3rd trimester, but the joy of new life she's nurturing inside will, as we all know, be well worth the pain and suffering right now.

It's Both/And. Never either/or. Life is happening every minute of every day, in its full array of pleasure and pain. We can't limit ourselves only to the happy and enjoyable, even if we sometimes wish we could. But, to borrow from our good friend O, there's one thing I do know for sure: Multi-tasking women are never too busy to celebrate AND to care.


If you can help, please make a donation today to the Red Cross, Salvation Army or charity of your choice. Even William and Kate have passed on receiving gifts and asked anyone who wishes to make a donation to one of the charities they feel are important.

Royal Wedding Watch... Why?

Okay, I admit it... a group of my girlfriends and I are all getting up and getting together to watch the Royal Wedding. I haven't quite decided yet if I'll get up really early for the 4 am start of coverage, or just stay up all night and hope to nap later. My owl genes may kick in, but that remains to be seen. :-)

At first, it was just Ellen and me. Then our friend Marsha graciously offered to host us at her house so we could laugh, comment, squeal and pretty much celebrate without having to take husbands and kids with early work/school schedules into account. But then, the party grew. We aren't the only ones, it seems, willing to sacrifice soothing slumbers for a first glimpse of THE guests, THE dress, THE balcony kiss. There are lots of us out there. You, too?

What is it - really - that fascinates us about this wedding? Is it just 'ordinary girl marries Prince Charming'? While hardly Cinderella, Kate IS just one of us (well, if you're the daughter of self-made millionaires!) But I think it's more than that. There must be something that makes a bunch of busy, multi-tasking women with families and businesses and oh-so-many other things to do, get up so early (or stay up so late) to watch a wedding an ocean away!?!

My curiosity has me asking the women I know WHY? and you know what they say?

"We just want to see some GOOD NEWS these days!" and what better, happier story is there than a wedding of two gorgeous young people with their new life together spreading out in front of them.

So we'll be there.. in front of our flat screen, champagne flutes in hand to raise a toast. Here's to optimism, and to what we all seem to really need these days... a happy ending, or at least a good start on a 'happily ever after.'

Grab your glass and join us!

When the student is ready.... my immersion weekend!

They say when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Well, this student is armed and at attention with ball point, spiral binder and laptop in hand. I'm spending my birthday weekend with best selling author and the all-round amazing Hollis Gillespie at her Shocking Real Life Book Writers Boot Camp.

Tonight was just a preview of what I know is going to be a life changer. Those of you who know me well, know that I've been promising (threatening?) to 'write my book' for oh, say, what is it, years, now? Well, girlfriends and fellow multi-taskers, it's time for the rubber to meet the proverbial road... or better yet, for the fingers to keep on pounding the keyboard.

As with all of Hollis' offerings, tonight alone has already proved worth the price of the retreat. Just as though she'd been eavesdropping on my interior conversation, I got the answers to what I now realize are some of the burning (and rarely spoken aloud for fear of seeming nuts!) questions every writer ponders:

• yes, ALL writers suffer from that good old 'I'm not worthy' otherwise known as 'fraud syndrome' (Really? Really!)
  
• the very best place is to start where you are and write like nobody will ever read it!
• just get it out of your head and onto the paper - tell those internal censors to put a sock in it!
  

I'll be up bright and early tomorrow with my potluck offering for lunch in hand (my favorite - classic southern homemade pimento cheese!) and looking forward to filling my mind and feeding my soul with the thoughts, input and ideas that come from a gathering like this. Just me and 12 other would-be-will-be-published writers, listening to the wisdom of those who've passed this way before and come back to share details of the roadmap. No GPS required!

Stay tuned!