Skip to main content

It is what it is and other closure for 2008

The last few months of 2008 were a little mind-blowing in a "I'll let you know when I've finished processing that" kind of way.

Have you ever gotten busy and let your house go? You know what I mean...skip the laundry, dusting, cleaning, tidying, vacuuming and so forth and one day, walk in, notice the mess and dirt and think, "Holy crap, how did it get this big and bad so fast and where in the world do I start?"

Have you ever just backed out of the house and decided to find errands to run and a good excuse to eat out in order to avoid the mess and all you have to do?

Overwhelmed.

I haven't written much because I've been so overwhelmed, and had no way of figuring how to break it down and which one thing to tackle first.

The next thing I knew, the things I wanted to say had piled up on top of one another and I? had no time to get to it, but more than that, it was such a cluttered jumble in my mind that I needed to break it down.

Let's go back a few months...

I traveled this year! Oh how I traveled! All on my own! And I liked it.

I went to San Francisco, Denver and Pittsburgh. I met friends I know through blogging, traveled the political wheel with writers I respect and politicians I tried hard not to show too much awe to, and listened to our country's foremost experts on the current state of the environment and its effect on our health.

I experienced and took in so much I had to play it cool while my mind slowly digested how! freaking! amazing! my life had become.

I went on the radio. My words traveled through many channels to reach many eyes.

My kids returned to school. Patience exploded as a strong and interested reader with an even stronger penchant for science, math and art. Persistence picked up letters and concepts with a rapidity that I think startled and sort of frightened us both.

We got hit by a hurricane. Some were hit harder than us, and some hit less hard. Some businesses are back, and some are gone forever. It's hard to tell a sad story without sounding self-pitying or pitiable. It's even harder to tell this story without sounding angry or entitled. It's harder still to tell our story without feeling ashamed because some have it so much worse. We took on damage. If we do all that we should, we'll spend over $35,000. Insurance gave about $3000. FEMA gave exactly $0.00. So we're getting creative, seeking financing, trying to be conservative without being frozen, and working to make good decisions that help us recover from this. Most especially, I want to reach a better balance of helping myself recover and helping others who are in need.

My husband and I both flipped another year older and celebrated 15 years of marriage. That's right...fifteen. years. married. This officially means I am practically dead even in time with knowing and being in a relationship with him as long as I didn't know him.

Stop a second...what a concept.

The kids flipped another year older, and suddenly, for birthday and Christmas presents, I realized Patience had gotten so much more sophisticated this year, so much older, that I was stymied what to get her. I was no longer shopping for both kids in the "little girl" aisles. I got her speakers for her iPod, and we set up a CD player with her own stash of CDs in her room. Sometimes she retreats there, closes her door, and listens to music. Do you know what this makes me see? The Tween years looming.

Persistence, after having clung to the toddler-ness of being a toddler until the very last second, was suddenly All Done with the toddler years. By age she was no longer a toddler, and by mind, too. She was determined to be a Big Girl, keep up with Big Girls, do all that Big Girls can do. She wants to read, too. She wants to fix her own food, too. She chooses her own clothes, fixes hair, and makes her bed. She loves to play with friends, and her most important achievement right now to her is the ability to pump her legs and swing herself. Riding a bike is a close second.

And that means, officially, we have two children, one of whom likes to remind me that she is this close to being ten. What is the significance of ten I ask. That's the age upon which she seems to expect a Granting of No Longer a Little Girl rights. I hope I get some official booklet in the mail because honestly, I'm not sure what those rights might be. The right to get locked in an ivory tower, perhaps.

We were suddenly done with babies. At first, the freedom was liberating, but then I felt a wee bit of that sting of emptiness.

People seemed to sense this---both the being done with babies and my sting---and they started asking about more kids (because two isn't enough? or we can't possibly be satisfied with children of the same sex?). They do this despite my age, my health, and my infertility. And for the first time in a long time, I have felt the sharp bite of Being Infertile again. No, no there cannot be a "last minute baby" for us.

By November, when I went in to see my general practitioner for my annual physical, I realized what was happening: I was feeling the youthness of my life edging away and I was feeling my age.

I turned my head to gaze at a poster on her wall. It read: If you took typewriting classes in high school, it's time to see an internist.

Holy crap, I thought, that's me! That poster means me! My age group!

That cemented it for me.

I'm getting older. My kids are getting older. My cats passed on. My dog's schnoz is graying. So is my hair, and my husband's. The youth portion of life? Has ended.

It had been coming on for a while, this feeling.

In San Francisco I demurred away from some late night running parties...I had to get up early and needed my sleep. In Denver I let some events pass by. In Pittsburgh I listened to some other people talk about oh-so-very-much that they do and I thought, that's cool for you but me? I am in a simplify mode. I am in a focus mode. I am in a triage my priorities mode.

To what end?
I ask this a lot lately.

I've started looking at older people with an intense interest. Today as I did my paces around the track, an older man joined me. We crossed several times because he was slower and walking clockwise while I was speedy and counterclockwise. This seemed meaningful, hinting at some sort of metaphor. He carried on at his unhurried pace, unmotivated, uninterested or unable maybe to go any faster. He felt no pressure to do anything beyond what he came there to do, at his own pace. Meanwhile, I moved forward as quickly as I could.

I told my husband last night that I do this every day for three reasons: endorphin rush, to look damn good for my age, and to be healthy. "As long as I have my priorities straight," I joked.

As 2008 closed, the birthdays past, the holidays sealed shut and gotten through okay, I made that vow to myself, a resolution if you will: to get and keep my priorities straight.

A lot of what I've done the last year has been good and brought some incredible times my way. I'll never forget the amazing parts of 2008.

But some of it came at a cost, one I might not be willing to pay long term. A lot of what I do is so very, very competitive. It demands much, gives little but I do it because when it does pay out, it can be amazing.

I've been thinking a lot about how much I prefer my little locally-owned grocery store, and the little clothes boutique near it. I've been thinking about how I like little spaces, with concentrated and focused choices. I've been thinking about how maybe I need to apply that more liberally through other parts of my life: give myself permission to stick to the little, to my preferences.

So this past year I tried out different yeses and noes. Some were right, some were wrong, and this year I think I'll build on that.

Meanwhile, I'll be enjoying my children: Patience and her self-created books, where her writing is catching up with her art, and her new sympathy and understanding that reflects that her self is growing as much as her body; Persistence, with her sunny giving nature and love of fashion and books, the new care she applies to her independence, which she doesn't seem the need to fight for just as fiercely. I'll also enjoy my husband, because who doesn't appreciate the person with whom you can communicate with through grunts and gestures (and a little mind reading) when words (or cell phones) fail you, as they seem to more and more these days.

And I'll try to break it down, and bring out a little more, one at a time, again here.

Comments

Unknown said…
I still have no way to really wrap around my own year. 2008 was a challenge in many ways. Nothing like what you experienced, but challenging still.

I hope you are able to build on your different yeses and noes.

Good to see you on your blog!
Kyla said…
Julie blogged! It is a miracle! ;)

I am so glad to have kicked '08 out the door, it kicked me plenty. '09 has been far better so far.
Anonymous said…
Hey! You're back! I was beginning to think we'd lost you.

glad I was wrong. :)
Annie said…
Loved this reflection. I found myself nodding in recognition at a lot of this, and tears pricking at some of them.

I know very well that pang of not having a third child. It's not an option for us either - but for different reasons - and I've made my peace with that - but everytime someone mentions it, they unintentionally twist that knife all the more - and it hurts...
Magpie said…
Oh yes, Julie, oh yes.

Though I have a question - if I never took typing in school (though it was offered), do I never have to go to the doctor again?
painted maypole said…
good to see you online!

you have perfectly described my house this week. i am trying to wade through it. except this morning I took a nap instead.
Mad said…
One of the reasons I stay on Twitter is b/c you pop up there now and then. I no longer need the intensity of the blogging community but I don't like to lose people I've come to enjoy and admire. All that is to say, I'm glad you posted, Julie. I like to know how you're doin'.
ewe are here said…
Hooray!

And Wow. I really like your look back, and your look at where you are in life in so many ways... a really nice post.

Happy 2009.
Anonymous said…
i missed you.
Florinda said…
Happy New Year, and welcome back - I've missed you (as I mentioned here, somewhere around halfway)! Thanks for sharing your look back, and I hope that looking forward to 2009 means you'll be here more often.
Anonymous said…
Very nice retrospective and pro-spective (forward looking). Good to hear from you! And, yes, the children getting older can be both amazing in a good way and amazing in a sad way.

(BTW, I sent you a Christmas card, but it got returned as "undeliverable"?)
Yolanda said…
Happy new year, Julie. Loved this reflection and the update on P and P. They have transitioned so much during the time you've been away it almost makes your absence seem longer. Looking forward to more of you in 2009, however much that may be.
jeanie said…
Thanks for the update, Julie.

Your girls sound wonderful, and growing at just the right pace. I love that you get storybooks by Patience - we have a library of such books here!

Oh my, there are a whole two generations of people out there who never get to rush to the best Olivetti - and now we have to get medical attention?

I am so sorry that your insurance and assistance will do squat towards your repairs - good luck on repairs - maybe you should blog it an invite sponsorship from the suppliers and trades?

I hope 2009 brings everything you need and no more darned hurricanes.
Anonymous said…
Wow, it great to read your writing again. So calming.

I wish you a beautiful 2009.
MARY G said…
Delighted to hear from you in this forum.
Hey, I took typing on a manual typewriter. And so I hear you about the growing old, I really do. Over the last two decades, whenever I thought I was settling into old foginess, I did something nuts -- scuba diving and sailboarding were two of my 'finger for you, old age' activities.
I need to think of another one.
Soon.
Best wishes to you for a peaceful and creative 2009.
MommyTime said…
I love coming here when there's something new to read because it always gives me something to chew on for a while. Your introspection is so inspiring to push me towards my own -- I hope you know what a rare quality that is in a writer. In MY ideal universe (not that I get a vote), do you know what you would spend the next year doing? Writing a collection of essays that would make me catch my breath at points, laugh out loud at others, and think, really THINK about the world and my place in it, just as this has done. Thank you for that. And for this piece of you.
Anonymous said…
Welcome back. At least we are growing old together!
Lady M said…
Beautifully written, as always.

I'm vowing to enjoy the present more in 2009.
Anonymous said…
I too am slowing down, watching the kids and being me (and the husband/lover thing. Time for that too! ;P)

2008 sounds like a busy and great and tough year all at once.
Gale said…
Aging is better than the alternative. That being said, I love being 50. I have freedom, I love that fact the kids are self sufficient. You have much to look forward too.
Anonymous said…
It is good to hear from you again. Certainly, 2008 was quite an 'interesting' year - I do hope 2009 proves to be somewhat, let us say, 'calmer'.

~EdT.
Anonymous said…
I was gone from my blog for a week and it seemed like an eternity. Your absence was felt more palpably than mine, I'm sure. Glad you're back.
alejna said…
Gulp. I took typing in high school.

I'm glad to see you back here, too. It is always a pleasure to read your reflections.
Stephanie said…
Welcome back. I love the way you put it - of trying out new yeses and noes, and building on what worked. I guess it's what we're all doing, though maybe not as conscientiously as you.
Robert said…
My post of reflection on 2008 was called Endurance because that seemed to be a theme for so many. I gave a talk about it in church the last Sunday of the year, and the thing that stuck out the most to me was that our trials are really blessings as much as our fortunes are. We learn so much from hard things that we have to be thankful for them, even though that sounds crazy.

It was quite a year, to say the least. I am looking forward to an amazing 2009.

Popular posts from this blog

In defense of vanity...I think

Do you have one of those issues where you argue with yourself? Where you just aren't sure what you actually think because there are so many messages and opinions on the topic around you? I have more than one like this. However, there is one topic that has been struggling to the top of my mind recently: vanity and perceived vanity. Can vanity be a good thing? Vanity has historically been truly reviled. Vanity is number seven of the Seven Deadly Sins. It's the doppleganger of number seven on the Seven Holy Virtues list: humility. There are many moralistic tales of how vanity makes you evil and brings about a spectacular downfall. Consider the lady who bathed in the blood of virgins to maintain her youth. Google Borgia+vanity and find plenty. The Brothers Grimm and Disney got in on the act too. The Disney message seems to be: the truly beautiful don't need to be vain. They are just naturally eye-catchingly gorgeous. And they are all gorgeous. Show me the Reubenesque Princess.

Cancer's Calling Card

Foreword: I'm not a medical person, or any kind of expert. This post shouldn't be taken as God's word carved in stone by Moses. In other words, don't consider it to be any kind of authority or use it to treat, diagnose, or select medications. Do your own research and talk to your doctor, an actual expert, who, you know, went to medical school and stuff. This post is merely my best understanding of cancer and cancer treatment and prevention, as related to our situation, based on what I've learned from reading and talking to doctors. Author's Note: If you aren't interested in the cancer discussion and the things I learned, and only want to know the outcome of our appointment with the oncologist yesterday, skip to the end. I've divvied this up by sections, so go to the last section. What would you do if one day a postcard arrived in the mail to warn you that sometime in the next three years you would be diagnosed with cancer? Would you believe it? Change an

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum

After being confronted with written evidence, Julie admits that she is a total attention whore. In some things, in some ways, sometimes I look outward for validation of my worth and existence. I admit it. It's my weak spot, my vanity spot . If you say I am clever, comment on a post, offer me an award, mention me on your blog, reply to a comment I left on your blog, or in any way flatter me as a writer...I am hopelessly, slavishly devoted to you. I will probably even add you to my blogroll just so everyone can see the list of all the cool kids who actually like me . The girl, she knows she is vain in this regard , but after much vanity discussion and navel-gazing , she has decided to love herself anyway, as she is (ironically) and will keep searching for (1) internal validation and (2) her first person . Until I reach a better point of self-actualization, though, may I just say that this week you people have been better than prozac and chocolate (together, with a side of white choc