Lisa for Real

2.18 Re-embracing the Real you

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The world needs the real you.

The you who cries at sappy commercials.

The you who makes a wish every time she blows a dandelion clock.

The you who loses track of time when talking to a friend.

The you who mourns the end of a good book series.

The you who speaks up when she notices things aren’t quite right.

The you who finds joy in creating.

The you who switches her favorite food/color/song/outfit just because she feels like it.

The you who walks/skips/runs purposefully but also welcomes serendipitous detours.

Isn’t it funny how the real you resembles little you?

Perhaps all we need to do is re-embrace our inner child.

2.17 What the ego wants

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Our ego wants to believe that people are doing things TO us.

But in reality, it’s not very often that people are doing something to directly insult, anger, hurt or negatively impact us. People are so self-absorbed and driven by their own egos that we are merely collateral damage in their actions and ambitions.

Our ego wants to feel important even if it means getting hurt.

I can easily downward spiral into this kind of thinking (yay ego!) but what helps me is separating the person’s actions from who they are and from me. There is usually a reason to explain someone’s actions and 99.9% of the time, it isn’t me.

2.16 Going to the riverbank

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As I was handwashing sweaters today (a much dreaded activity), I thought about how women used to go to the riverbanks together to do their laundry. And as I washed alone in silence, I wondered the conversations that they would have.

As sure as I am that there were lighthearted conversations, I am equally sure there was sharing of knowledge from person to person and from generation to generation.

While I wrung my sweaters and wondered how to “lay [them] flat to dry”, I thought about those women by the riverbank sharing all they know with each other. They would have passed onto me so many ideas on how to lay my sweaters flat – ideas that were shared and tested over years washing alongside one another. And I imagined how many more innovations were shared between them.

In this modern age, innovation is still seen as coming from “eureka moment’s” by some nerdy guy in a garage. As Silicon Valley glamorous that scenario is, it feels quite soul-ness. And I wonder how differently innovation would be defined if 21st century women had our version of going to the riverbank to wash and chat and share ideas together.

2.15 The moon we see

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The land I live on has always been here but not bulldozed, paved, landscaped, fertilized, and sectioned off like it is today.

When I think of the Native tribes that lived on the land that I reside on, I wonder what it was like for them before the land was colonized.

I haven’t a clue.

But the one thing that I know they and I share is the moon.

Since moving to my house in the suburbs, I have fallen back in love with the moon. Without the bright city lights and skyscrapers blocking my view, I can witness it in all its illuminated glory.

Whenever it is the 15th day of the lunar month, I marvel at the full moon. My bathroom, which faces west, has a skylight, and between 10:00PM and midnight those nights, the moon shines straight down through the skylight lighting up the whole bathroom.

It is a true thing of beauty.

And when I see how powerful that moonlight is, I marvel that this moon is the very same moon that the members of the Massachusett and Nipmuc tribes witnessed, maybe even from almost the same location on this land.

I think about how they didn’t have artificial lights that dulled the moonbeams. I think about how much safer they may have felt during full moon nights where shadows that exist during the rest of the moon cycle are lit up. I think about how much reverence there must have been for that full moon that visited them ever 28 days like magic.

And I think about their tribal members alive today who carry that same reverence for the moon and this land and I feel connection and purpose and care.

How beautiful is the moon we see.

2.14 Listen to your body

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After this past week, I have nothing left within me.

My body is worn, ragged and heavy and saying, “It’s time to call it a night.”

But I should – NO

But I have to – NO

I really need to – NO

Seriously, there’s no other time to – NO

I will get in trouble if I don’t – NO

But – NO. But – NO. But – NO.

If I get in trouble – I DON’T CARE.

Sigh. Okay.