My son was two and playing on the sidewalk with the other kids. Laura, the next-door neighbor, jiggled her one-year-old. “I think for the first time in over two years,” I said, “I might not be overwhelmingly tired.” She replied, “I’m hoping to have that feeling soon, I’m just so exhausted!” As I recall early parenthood, I can still today feel the memory in my body and mind and spirit stretched so thinly, so precariously surviving, yearning for something out of reach.
Rain has been around a lot longer than humans. Sun, too. As long as our species has existed there has been weather, and people have found lots of different ways to handle it.
It’s rough out there. Wars, atrocities, mass shootings, global warming, toxic polarization, free-floating anger and anxiety. As I talk to people around me, I find many are distracted and off-center.
The misunderstandings, assumptions and judgments between generations cause some real conflicts. It is natural for people to believe the way they were raised, the time they grew up and the standards they considered as the norm are superior to other generations’ ways of being. Just like my grandmother and her hand-cranked dryer, it is hard to adopt to new ways.
As I reflected on some of those women, my grandmother immediately came to my mind. In my earliest recollections, she walked to and from work as a housekeeper, caring for the children in the household, cooking meals and cleaning their home. She was a very proud woman, who I often quote. She promised me I could learn something new every day. I do!
I had no idea how revolutionary the times were. In 1972, I learned the Chinese saying “Women hold up half the sky.” It represented my dreams and aspirations. What an exciting picture from halfway around the world of women working and collaborating. This was not a world of men, but of men and women, each equal and valuable! The revelatory concept of having international sisters uplifted me and gave me hope.
