Writing is like wrapping yourself up in words and giving yourself away.
You wonder what people will think of the gift.
Will they love it? Will they want to keep it? Will they share it with their friends? Being unwrapped is deeply delicate business. So what you all did on Wednesday? How you received me and my book and unwrapped with such delight?
I shall always see January 29 with a bright pink ring around it. Candy nail polish pink.
Writing makes us brave. And terrified. Often simultaneously.
That’s OK. Write anyway.
This is the beginning of the fourth year of a whole community writing brave together on Fridays.
Here’s how it got started and how to join us. Just remember, the one rule is that you need to read the post of the person who linked up before you. And tenderly unwrap their words and share a note in their comments.
Writing is a gift. Let’s take time to say thank you. Leave a comment for someone today. {click to tweet that little slice of awesome.}
Today’s prompt is HERO.
Go:
She dreads Mondays. And Thursdays. And Saturdays.
She is certain her weeks are the same cycle set on repeat. She tells herself that she should have lost that baby fat years ago. I see her commute to work. I see her pick up the baby at midnight, rock the toddler, soothe the tweener back to sleep.
She sees herself in the mirror and misses what she was. And she misses what is. That tattered and torn cape fluttering from her tired shoulders.
She wonders if mac ‘n cheese is a food group. She cuts carrots. She rinses out sippy cups. Again.
She shows up at the awkward parent-teacher conference. She forgives. She bleeds from a heart cracked wide open with no hope of being band-aided back together.
She goes all in even on the days she wants out.
She bends and picks up sneakers that should have been put up on the shoe shelf. She crawls hand and knee on the carpet looking for the lost tooth that needs to be tooth fairy found.
She cries.
She reads tucked away behind a closed door on top of the toilet seat.
She remembers and she forgets and years later she remembers again.
This new beginning. This breaking up with herself.
This falling in love with someone better, louder, longer, for life.
Stop.
Thanks for reminding us friend… we’re heroes – each and everyone of us. Right down to the messy carpet and the wrung out days!
…especially those!
I can’t even! Gah… I love you so and this crazy gift of words! So so so happy for you today, friend!
Oh man, you guys know how to make a girl feel brave sharing her words.
Beautiful!
I really needed this today. Right now. Thank you for being brave by honesty. I love you and your blog!
Thank you for sharing this, Lisa. Somedays it’s hard to keep the old head above water. You always seem to encapsulate exactly what I’m feeling.
I don’t have a blog right now so I’m going to share here. This one needs a voice. I hope that’s okay….
HERO
They are my heroes and they don’t even know it. I hardly know them. But I see them. I see who they are. When it really counts. It’s so clear.
When the disaster happens, when their son is struck down, she leaves work and doesn’t look back. Where else would she be but at her son’s side? Tireless but weary all at once. Careworn. But present. Spurring him on. Loving him. Longing for his voice, just once more. And then he speaks.
He works. Hard. Because that’s what men do. They drive themselves harder the more it hurts. But still he finds time for church on Sunday. Still finds time to do what matters. And stops by that hospital room every day. Because where else would he be? But he longs for a better day.
They are my heroes but I don’t want to be them. Because ultimately they had to entrust their son into God’s hand knowing He might take him. And He did. Gone. After hours and days and weeks and months. After wishing and hoping and praying and forward and backwards. Gone. Just gone. That sears the heart. No matter how much we pray, God’s will isn’t always our way. And envisioning God’s plan is beyond us. But trust. That He hears. And he loves us in our pain. Because He has told us He does.
And the hard truth is that He has a reason. And He’ll work it out for their good. Because they love Him. And He promised. He loves them. And you. And me. Even me.
Easy? No. Is God still good? Yes, He is.
But I don’t want to be them. Not ever.
Even so Lord Jesus quickly come.
Stop.
I read this 2 times. The first time I read it, I thought it was heading in one direction, then the second time, I read it more slowly. I understood – and very beautifully written. Thank you for your words.
Lisa,
Thank you for the reminder that even when our cape is tattered and torn we are heros to those who depend on us.
Laura,
Wow what a powerful reminder of the fagility of life and the need to trust the creator.
Hero
Hero is a big word. Hero is someone you usually don’t want to be because it means that you did something to make someone say – You are my hero. There are people that are hero’s that do good things that people admire. But there are also hero’s that are hard to be. Like the woman who wants children so desperately that she will do anything to have them. She will go for test after test, be poked and prodded and her husband will do the same. They wait month after month, year after year and that monthly cycle just keeps rearing its ugly head. She will spend money they have and money they don’t have. All the time, her husband is right by her side, wanting so desperately for that baby, wanting so desperately to make his wife a mommy. All she ever wanted to be from the time she was old enough to know is that she wanted to be a mommy. All they want is a baby. So simple and yet so hard. It should be easy, but it isn’t. They are my heros. They want and they plead but they trust. They long for and beg for, cried millions of tears for but they trust. They trust God’s heart when they don’t understand. They don’t want to be a hero.
Stop
Great post, it made me cry for them, and hope for them.
Love!! Love you!! Yea I am at a lost for words. And Congrats on the book {insert happy dance} and the new look girl, it is… gorgeous like you.
I’m left speechless, Lisa-Jo.
Hero
I think of all the heroes in my life. People who just keep putting one foot in front of the other, no matter what life brings. They just keep going, keep moving forward, trusting that it will get better. Accepting a hand up when it is offered and offering a hand up when it’s needed.
I am often amazed and humbled by the heroes in my life, or as I like to call them… My family and friends.
Ah your words, Lisa-Jo. I feel so much more okay when I leave this corner of the world. Your words help me breathe a little easier, treat myself a little more gently.
Your prompt resonnated with me even though I didn’t play along with Five Minute Friday. I couldn’t follow the rules ;) esp the 5 minute part! But I did write…
https://onceuponagrainofsand.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/remember-to-take-off-your-cape
Being brave… sharing anyway
Hi Lisa-Jo,
Congrats on the book! Your words are like music and I love to read them. Others will, too! Now you can reach even those who don’t get on a computer (and yes, they are out there…not sure where, but I know they are!).
Also not sure where the linky tool is for this FMF, but posted my link above.
Blessings!
Selena
I wrote a post long-hand on the Friday this went live – but just now got around to typing it up! I am trying to be more intentional about writing, so I wanted to include it. :)
http://heatherschlender.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/five-minute-friday-3/
I missed the boat and have been off the boat for two months but am feeling renewed and ready to get at the words again. http://bellesbazaar-heather.blogspot.com/2011/12/fat-friday-cream-cheese-banana-bread.html
Oops!! That was my cream cheese banana bread reciepe. Also, a great find! lol
http://bellesbazaar-heather.blogspot.com/2014/02/hero-5-minute-post.html