I’m very excited to again this week join a talented group of women who connect each Friday in an online, unedited (so excuse all errors) flash mob free-write based on a one-word prompt from our fearless leader Kate Motaung. My timer is set for 5 minutes; let’s see where the word “world” takes me.
My two grandmothers were as different as night and day.
One was a German-American Indian, Lutheran woman. She loved to play games like Sorry, Yahtzee, and various card games. I never saw her do any handiwork; it seemed to me that all she did was chores. She enjoyed a beer on occasion. She was married to my larger-than-life, boisterous, outrageous grandfather. He was probably the reason she enjoyed that occasional beer!
My other grandma was a Scotch-Irish, die-hard Southern Baptist. Games with dice and cards of any kind weren’t allowed in her home, but if we brought a spinner she would play for hours. She loved to tat and make quilts. In the summer, she’d connect (by hand) tiny scraps of cloth into squares, and in the winter, my father would put up her quilt frame so she could hand-quilt every evening while she listened to her favorite television shows. She was a widow, and she proudly proclaimed that not once in her life had even a drop of liquor crossed her lips.
As unalike as they were. My grandmothers shared 3 traits.
First, they were women of very strong faith.
Both loved their families fiercely and with amazing patience for their loved ones’ foibles.
Neither of them cursed. When shocked, the most they would say was “What in the world?!”
As I chat on social media, read the newspaper, or listen to the news today, I often find myself parroting my grandmothers’ words.
Happily, my amazement is often of the happy variety.
I’m often awed by what is going on in the world around me. Just this week, for example, a friend posted on Facebook a short video of the most beautiful sea creature I’ve ever seen. I watched the that clip of the graceful, colorful creature over and over.
But six or seven years ago, I realized one day that it was in anger or disgust more often than not that I uttered the phrase “What in the world?!”
I realized that I was letting what I read or heard color my attitude — making me sad or cranky or worried.
And so, I made some changes in my approach to
Wow! That’s it . . . that’s all I have time for.