The Last Woman Standing

and the What Gives Me Life Life

There are things I love about February, and things I dread about February- and there is no escaping either, as much as we might try.

The first is my youngest kiddo’s birthday. The second is that every single person in my family gets sick EVERY February. Without fail.

I feel like it would be exceptionally braggy to say that I have the best children on the planet, but, there are things that cannot be helped. They are worth weeks of celebrations. Months, really. But our little one’s plans were thwarted by a cold this week that kept her home most days and miserable all of them. We had thought we all dodged the bullet but, alas, Mamas are always the last women standing and I’m currently writing to you in front of a space heater, under a stolen Ana and Elsa blanket, waiting for my husband to return with Mexican takeout ( please tell me someone else craves plantains when they’re sick, too?) and feeling a little worse than under the weather. February strikes again.

Rather than stew in my unfortunate circumstances, I think I’ll get right to the list of things that gave me life this week.

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The Full of Life List

1. I tend to have a tender spot for old, Catholic priests-preferably Franciscan or Jesuit- who speak in measured intonations and in thoughtful, but sometimes too philosophical even for me, circles. Brennan Manning will ne’er be unseated as my favorite but Greg Boyle and Richard Rohr have climbed up the ranks the last few years. They’ve each given me a deep permission to hold onto the mystical, to find God in everything, to love with wild abandon. Rohr’s podcast, “Another Name for Everything” has been my traveling companion this week.

2. Even though the written word has been my home for the last few years, Music was always my first love. Live music is an experience I just can’t seem to live without; there is something about watching someone use their gifts with humility and vulnerability in real-time that makes me so glad to be human. Levon Helm Studios has long been a favorite venue of mine- and to get to watch Joe Purdy is all his beautifully self-deprecating, sad-cowboy glory last night was a revelation in how we’ve survived this long without singing into each other’s faces.

   

3. I’ve been working toward eliminating foods that have been processed- or even made by someone else. It’s around this time of year I deeply consider what I consume; into my body, into my soul, into my brain. I will blame it on the upcoming Lenten season. And while I was always quick to judge that most use this segment of the church calendar as a reason to get a diet in ( I used to give up chocolate, for example) I feel something true and stirring about the abstinence from some things in order to see other things more clearly. Because I’ve avoided snacks that come in bags or boxes, I’ve been making these beautiful Japanese cabbage pancakes and warming them up when a hunger pang strikes. The modifications I made were: to use rice flour in order to make it gluten-free, added a grated clove of garlic, grated carrots for color, a few drops of toasted sesame oil, and a little more ginger than required- just because I like it.

   

4. Good music generally calls for a good beer and a good meal, and Seven Lakes Station in Sloatsburg, NY did not disappoint. After consuming the variety of craft brews they offer, you’ll be tempted to save calories by skipping the Belgian frites. That would be a mistake. As would getting anything other than the Chipotle aoili to dip them in.

   

5. I deeply believe that it is in the gathering of people, preferably around a table of food, where all the human magic happens. I’m only a few pages into this book and I can already tell we’re kindred spirits.

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That’s it, my friends! May you enter this week looking for the things that give you life, loving your way through all uncertainties and unafraid to eat your words. It helps when you make them delicious.