Unravel Me Universe, I Dare Ya

 

“The unraveling is a time when you are challenged
by the universe to let go of who you think
you are supposed to be and to embrace who you are.”

~     Brené Brown     ~

 

August of last year.  I’m standing at the sink doing dishes and pressing replay over and over again on a silent but nonetheless very loud conversation I’m having with myself in my own head.  “Why are you here again?  What’s wrong with you?  When are you ever going to change?  You’re such a loser.”

And then my mouth opened and out came the statement “You’re depressed.”

The weight of the words made my hands fall into the soapy water.  I was physically and mentally paralyzed for a moment.  Time stood still, as did I.  “But no, I can’t be, I’m better than that!”, I argued back to myself.  And out loud no less for full effect.

Being Real About Being Fake

 

Real is an antonym for fake.  So if I tell you that I can be really fake, here’s a multiple choice question for you.  Choose the single best answer.  No, not all that apply.  Am I …

a)  simply stating an oxymoron
b)  being genuinely bogus
c)  being artificially authentic
d)  all of the above
e)  none of the above

Acceptance Fills The Generation Gap

My mom was great.  For most of my upbringing, she raised me single-handedly with limited financial resources.  She went back to university in her 40’s to make a better life for both of us.  She had to go through me almost dying not once, but twice.  As she would say, I say “she done good”.  She died in 2011 a week shy of her 78th birthday.

My kids are great.  For much of their childhoods, I too have been a single parent and often used my mother’s rearing of me as inspiration when I found those times difficult.  I do the best I can and hope one day my kids might say “she done good” about me too.  Nothing could be a greater honour.  I have a 15-yr old girl, a 20-yr old girl, and a 23-yr old boy.

What is even greater are the memories I have of watching them be with each other.  And today’s Daily Prompt got me thinking what might be even greater than that is what I can learn from their togetherness, derived from exactly what I haven’t understood about them.

I’m like a lot of parents.  I have uttered words, under my breath of course, directed towards my mom wondering why she didn’t do such and such [insert a whole slew of possibilities] with me as I grew up, as I watched her do with my own children.  And maybe not like as many other parents but still, I have also wondered at times why it seemed like my kids treated my mom better than me [read: not given her sass and attitude].  The answer is the simplicity and humility of acceptance founded in unconditional love and respect for another human being.