I thought today about how tiresome it is to be nearly always trying to get up, pick oneself up, put one foot in front of the other. It's not so much about staying up or even being down, as it is the keeping up, the act of getting up -- well -- do you even know what I'm talking about? To tell you the truth, I'd rather be lying on my bed half the time, reading and recovering.
That's why it's good to remind yourself, every six months or so, of your own personal success, of how wonderfully your life is going, how blessed you are, how perfect it is in every way. You know -- gratitude, living in the moment, only being given what God knows you can handle. I'm talking to you, Denise and Sandra and Christy and Craig and Heather and Erika and Tom and Dick and Jane. All of you. Carpe diem. One day at a time. You only live once. Oh, and count your blessings.
Success Story
My clothes are perfectly contoured
to my body. my shoes & socks
fit just right. My cat is a delightful
intelligent animal. My apartment
is great. The right location,
cheap rent. I eat the best food.
My friends love me. I adore them.
My lover is terrific & beautiful.
The sun is shining. There are trees
even in the slums in Washington.
I have tons of money & a gorgeous
air conditioner. Great art hangs
on my wall. I live a spine-tingling life
of delirious sex & intense happiness.
Terence Winch
***Take from it as you will, but the tone of this post is sarcastic.
Well, the tone of the poem may be sarcastic for you but it perfectly describes my life. Every detail. It's as if I wrote it myself.
ReplyDelete(HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)
By the way, you are beautiful.
Now that you have a cat and are going to Mexico, this IS your life Mary!
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ReplyDeletecalvin's diapers still fit.
ReplyDeletehis poop comes out easier lately.
he slept into 5:15 this morning.
my back hurts less today.
my headache seems to be going away.
it is beginning to look and feel like spring.
i say beginning.
i was able to return three plants that died.
calvin is at school.
michael is fishing.
i am alone.
ahhhhhh.
You are, indeed, living large Christy!
DeleteI had to re-read this 3 times, the beginning, I kept thinking OK, where is the punch line or is Elizabeth just really digging deep.
ReplyDeleteI feel this way a lot lately and I hate it I wish I had more energy.
I didn't write that paragraph clearly, Expressing Motherhood -- I was trying to convey how difficult it is to keep getting up (not literally, because I am not depressed nor do I have no energy) but to keep on keeping on in general. And also how much I hate cliches and the stupid ones that well-meaning people use all the time. I'm not a nice person.
DeleteYou are nice, in the best naughty way. Those words could only come out of you as sarcasm as you are too intelligent for cliches - too smart to reach unthinkingly for rose-colored glasses. It's what I love best about you - despite it all you still some how manage to rise up off the bed, albeit with your book still clutched to your breast.
ReplyDeleteAnd the poem - I love poems that convey absurdity. I quite enjoyed this sour post :)
And PS - the photo? Fucking gorgeous - you slay me.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you are not a nice person.
ReplyDeleteI wear only yoga pants
ReplyDeleteBecause all of life is yoga. My cat does yoga
Too and is almost 100 in human years. My house
Is a study in serenity if you close your eyes to the pill bottles, and the blood pressure machine, and the oxygen machine, and the adult diapers, and the boxes and boxes of Kleenex.
We juice here everyday. Beets, carrots, kale, apples, oranges, cucumbers. We drink the elixir of death. Oops, I meant life. I live a
Spine-tingling life of hope. I’m just not sure what to
Hope for.
Denise, I love you.
DeleteOm
And yes, what a gorgeous photo of you, Gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteLife is indeed difficult, the getting up and carrying on. Some days are easier than others. I saw a poster once that said,"
ReplyDeleteI try to take one day at a time but sometimes several days attack me at once."
My life right now is a mess, both literally and figuratively. Right now I'm trying to not look at the mess too deeply, I know it will pass, eventually.
Beautiful photo by the way, the color of that necklace on you is perfect.
Beautiful photo of a beautiful woman with a keen sense of the absurd. And yet those first few lines about getting up felt utterly unironic to me. I am in bed right now reading this while contemplating staying under the covers all day. Of course, I can't.
ReplyDeleteI am feeling particularly blessed today because my girls are currently sitting at the kitchen table together playing an online game that they used to play about four years ago in a fit of nostalgia. The game is silly and they are both far beyond it in years and maturity, but they began reminiscing about when they used to sit and do it together until I hollered at them to "Go outside and breathe some fresh air, already!" and the next thing I know, they are knee-to-knee enjoying some quality time together without bickering. The best part is that their dialogue reflects their teenagerhood ("Man, her hair is all jacked up!" or "Oh, yeah? Well I'm relying on you to suss this one, sistah!") despite the juvenile nature of the game. I can barely breathe for worry of interrupting the moment...
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