ANOTHER ONE TOO GOOD NOT TO STEAL FROM I HEART GALVESTON

Thursday, May 17, 2012


PUSHING THE MOWER



When you accomplish the extraordinary, every day, will you ever be....satisfied?



This question was rolled over and over again by two best friends last night, two girls who juggle and balance and run a race every single day. Girls who make dinners and pack school bags and read books 14,567 times at night to little ears...oh, and single-handedly plan town festivals and book bands and schedule media interviews and press releases.



We are subjected to these stories of Cinderellas - EFFING CINDERELLAS - and their Prince Charmings and how the only way a story ends well is when the boy gets the girl and they live happily ever after.



Prince Charming = Happy Ever After.



Always the same.



Can Happy Ever After happen for girls who are strong, strong beyond their own comprehension, busy that challenges any to-do lists imaginable, who strive and stretch and grow and stress and push mowers all by themselves and lug trashcans to the curb because, hell, who else is going to take out the trash?



We sit in the same boat, she and I, together. We wouldn't have it any other way and it happens silently, without us even realizing it.



Promises of the easy, the simple, the comfortable and the secure. And shouldn't we be JUMPING ALL OVER THAT? I mean, seriously, why would we not want to unyoke ourselves from the burdens we carry right now? (Our parents want to punch us both in the face right now.)



Maybe because those burdens are what makes us who we are.



And without those burdens and the strife, we might lose a little bit of our sense of self.



Burdens = Identity.



And we have these sets of eyes - these small people who watch us, absorb us, depend on us, live through us. And we never want to disappoint them.



We want them to know that they are capable - just like we are.



They can push the mower.



They can take out the trash.



They are empowered. And amazing and perfect and wonderful and loved.



And it doesn't take a Prince Charming to do that. Or a Cinderella.



It takes YOU. Loving you.



Oh, onions.