I had a plan for this weekend! (Uh-huh!)
It was inspired by my friend, Sam Bennett, who suggested that those of us involved in the adventure known as Get It Done Lab experiment with reclaiming our weekends!
Feeling inspired, I enlisted the Legendary Husband to help.
Originally, the plan involved comfort and abundance. Specifically, the local, sustainably raised turkey napping in our freezer since Thanksgiving fell apart last fall!
Bill loves turkey. It’s a great example of cook once – eat a whole lot of times! It has welcome side effects of gravy and bone broth. And, it makes the house smell really, really good.
Then, Grandmother Moon got involved, too, with an urgent plan for a game of closet Yahtzee!
Yesterday was planning and measuring day. And excavating the basement for a missing closet rod!
Today, we began. You know the game… before you can move that thing there, you have to move those things somewhere else…
Trust me when I tell you we’re nowhere near ready for pictures!
As I write these words, Big Bird is thawing in the fridge, preparing for dry brining which begins tomorrow. We’re cooking on Monday. (I’m not in much of a fireworks mood!)
My plan for tonight involved telling you a lot more about the fine dining adventure.
One of these days, I’ll post pictures and a recipe or two.
For this moment, though, my filters are in some massive transition mode as I continue to cope with the news.
Some of those filters – which work hard to keep us from being utterly inundated with input from our senses and the world – have to do with history and language and beliefs and strategies.
As you probably know, one of my self-soothing strategies is The West Wing.
Last night I was watching an episode having to do with the tragic, traumatic fall of a democracy, somewhere in Africa.
Then, frankly, I got gobsmacked, as it were, by a lightbulb in my head. Here’s what I wrote on my perpetually present index card:
Rape is wrong because it takes away bodily sovereignty and civil rights. So is overturning Roe… and even flirting with the notion of limiting access to contraception.
Which suggests, at least to me, that most of the Supreme Court justices have lost all notion of justice. Or, and I find this more likely, that justice was never their purpose in sitting on that bench.
Then, today… and this was even more traumatic than my West Wing revelation… I was watching a re-run of the recent Westminster Kennel Club dog show as I painted more lights and shadows on my #BoldBlooms canvas.
The commentators and handlers were chatting, as they do. And I was hearing familiar things like this, but with new ears.
She throws gorgeous puppies, already strengthening the breed.
She’s a stunning girl who’s doing so much for me in this sport.
Now, I’ve belonged to a variety of kennel clubs in my day. I’ve handled. And entered. I helped my kid learn Junior Showmanship. And there are still a few active judges and breeders and handlers that I knew back in the day.
For the last 20 years, or so, it’s been rescue dogs at our house. That’s Sarah, in the photo.
Not at all likely to have won any hardware in a breed ring, but well-intentioned in an utterly unique sort of way. And one of my biggest teachers.
This morning, though, I heard with new ears.
The conversation at Westminster has a whole lot in common with what the Supreme Court is saying – in barely veiled language – about the role of women and girls.
And, just in case you hadn’t guessed… I DISSENT!
My girls are not trophies designed to make their “handlers” feel powerful and important.
They’re not brood animals created to carry on superior lines of the way we’ve always done it.
And neither are any of our girls.
This mess isn’t just bad law. It’s really, really bad theology and philosophy.
This is a glimpse of what it looks like to celebrate self and choice…
It’s not a prize to be won.
It’s what it means to be human.
And we ALL deserve that!
Which is, I suspect, re-claiming a whole lot more than our weekend… plus turkey!
ps… just in case you’re hoping to use your SuperPowers for guidance along the way, in these times, I can help! Click here for the next right thing! (It’s power-full and fast and free!)
pps… some of my SuperPowers have to do with adjusting the calendar when it’s helpful! It is, therefore, officially, Christmas in July! Everything at FierceArtWithHeart is 20% off, NOW! No fancy codes needed. Just put everything from original paintings to archival prints, to tank tops (!), to great gift items in your basket and the elves will do the math!
Thank you for normalizing and validating my home and way of life! My main current mystery is where is my drivers license, but thanks to your sharing I remembered where my curtain rod is.
More important, helping to put words to the mess in my head about the SC ruling. My reality, my faith in humanity, my patriotism is in limbo. I feel dumbstruck and speechless. It is a temporary feeling, I have been thru too much to let this silence me and my beliefs. It is my silence before a storm feeling. Finding the most efficient way to take back what it right. Knowing that I will explode before I have fully found my answer and that is ok.
Thank you!
Thank YOU, Christine, for reading and hearing!!! Words are one of the things I can do. We all have those things, if only we are open to claiming them! Thank you for knowing your silence is temporary. It’s going to take a lot of us! I’m here…