moms – Page 12 – hannah ananas

Cowboy Church

Just as I was going to bed on Sunday night, I ended up on the phone with my mom. She was on her way to Cowboy Church, the Church services offered for all the cowboys who are in town to participate in the rodeo (though it is open to all, of course), and so, even though it was long past my bedtime, it being near midnight my time, I asked her to call me back once she had arrived and settled in at the service.

I rushed to finish my bedtime routine, reading and all, and had just finished everything when my phone was buzzing with the FaceTime call from Church. Therefore, I found myself attending Church for the first time from the comfort of my own bed. But it gets better.

The passage on which the pastor focused mainly was the one from Luke 10 where Jesus ends up at the home of Martha and Mary, and Mary sits and listens to and dotes on Jesus, while her sister, Martha, is preparing the meal. (Martha eventually comments to Jesus about the situation, and asks him to tell Mary that she needs to help Martha, and not just sit around, and then Jesus talks about how Mary has actually picked the better and more important of the two options, and all that jazz.)

You know how there’s always the discussion over Shakespeare’s works, whether they are too old-fashioned to be fully understood to people today, and would do best being re-done in a way that people can actually relate to the various situations and circumstances, as people had been able to do in Shakespeare’s time? Now, typically, we think of the biblical figures as following a certain type of diet, based on historical information on the region, as well as various notes within the Bible itself. However, seeing as this was Cowboy Church, the pastor definitely took it upon himself to speak to his audience, and to make the story more relatable for his listeners.

How, you ask, did he do that? Well, Martha wasn’t cooking seeds in the oil, making bread, or anything like that. She was in the kitchen chopping tomatoes for the salsa, cooking and slicing the meat, heating the tortillas… in short, she was making fajitas for Jesus.

After that image, all I could see was a Jesus eating fajitas next to a jar of Pace Picante, while wearing a tunic, a cowboy hat, and boots; and then riding off on a horse, while swinging a lasso in the air. Or perhaps I just kept flipping back and forth between a sort of Chuck Norris and a Jesus image. Not sure – it’s a difficult thing to imagine, Jesus eating tacos and fajitas.

All in all, I had a wonderful time at Cowboy Church, and for various reasons. i also had several firsts in that attendance. It was, of course, my first time at Cowboy Church, and I was thrilled to be in attendance. It was my first time to attend Church while in my bed and PJs. it was my first time imagining Jesus easting fajitas and salsa. And, perhaps the oddest of them all, it was my first time spending the entire service using my phone. It was a way cool sort of bedtime story slash activity. So glad to have such an awesome mom. Thanks, Mom!

Post-a-day 2017

Speed Runner

Once, when I was little (maybe still in elementary school), my mom let me out of the car near the end of our street. We were heading home, and I don’t know how it came up, but I wanted to know how fast I could run. So she had me get out to run next to the car, and she would measure my speed by driving next to me.

I didn’t even have shoes on, as I recall, but we went for it anyway. Perhaps I made it to 17mph. That number stands in my memory as connected to the incident. Whatever the speed, though, it has always stood as a favorite memory of mine. I love the nonsense that my mom and I get up to, and it hasn’t been until recent years that I have begun to notice how much so we really are ridiculous, and how we have been so all my life. I love my mom.
Post-a-day 2017

Mardi Gras

Tomorrow is Mardi Gras and my birthday. This is the second time in my life that the two events have coincided. It just so happens that people haven’t even heard of Mardi Gras here in Japan, so we can let alone the idea of their celebrating it. I am throwing an impromptu dinner tomorrow night (decided it this afternoon), and am only certain of two guests (a Canadian and a Japanese friend). Not my favorite kind of Mardi Gras bash, but it’ll still be nice, I think. Nonetheless, this will be one of my most simple and uncelebrated birthdays yet.

The last time my birthday coincided with Mardi Gras, I was in ninth grade, and we had arranged with a friend of my mom’s to go stay at his place on one of the main parade roads in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Unfortunately, that was 2006, and Hurricane Katrina cancelled those plans for us.

We instead grabbed my childhood best friend, and went down to Galveston for some all-you-can-eat pancakes and a good ole parade. It was nothing like New Orleans would have been, but it was still wonderful, and it started a tradition. Almost every year since (we must exclude the year I was studying in France), my mom and I have gone to Gaveston for Mardi Gras.

Which makes it totally weird that there is literally nothing around here for any Mardi Gras merriment… happy birthday to me? (There’s got to something good for me to get out of all of this.) 😛
Post-a-day 2017

Self-discovery and second opinions

Today, I am sharing with you (whoever you may be) an e-mail, which I wrote earlier today. I feel it expresses the exact reason for which I have been calm and at ease today and tonight, and even did laundry without a fuss just a bit ago, and have made plans for my next load tomorrow (and with ease of mind).

Note: The thing I am referencing, the thing to which I listened Sunday morning, is a Ted 250 talk on making hard decisions, which my dad had sent me.

Listened to this Sunday morning, and been thinking about it ever since. Mom, I just sent you some texts about my current thoughts, but here’s an e-mail to keep you two in the loop on my thinking, and to give a space for each of your thoughts on the matter.

As I mentioned to you, Mom, I think I’m not a big business person. (I’d been considering looking for work with Schlumberger or the likes) I could be a big business person, and I don’t want to be one… not really. I only want the money and the prestige for it, the respect from others, and their high opinions of me. As you mentioned recently, Mom, other’s people’s opinions of me are none of my business. An initially difficult thought, but a powerful and releasing one. If I were to be a big business person, I realize (and I have always known this on some level) that it would be a never-ending effort to keep the real me alive, to maintain who I am at heart…, because the big business is not who I truly am, you see. Suits are fun, but only on occasion – I don’t want the daily suit lifestyle. (Though, to be fair, I might like it better if this were the norm!! Is it weird that I can So see Rob in these? But I digress…)

So, I think I want to do art school. I am constantly thinking about how I want to be trained in art skills (since high school, actually), and have always somehow seen myself being in a million art classes. I’m not sure exactly how to go about doing it, but I think I want to start with working and schooling together in [—]. I can do [Community College] evenings as a start, with subbing and tutoring and potentially teaching a couple classes part-time, as well as reffing (and possibly coaching) lacrosse. Perhaps, after I’ve done some art classes, I’ll know if I want to go into an official school or something – I’ll at least know if I like what I’m doing, and it will only be one university semester to figure that out (as opposed to a high school semester or an academic year or more).

My main thought is that I need to focus my life around the things for which I most long, instead of finding work that provides the money to do the things I want to do, and just doing those things on the side, and often ending up not having time for them in the first place.

Mom, I know you already said, and quite perfectly, “If you build it, they will come. Follow your heart, and the money will follow.” (Yes, I added commas for myself.) Nonetheless, I would love for y’all’s thoughts and ideas on it all. You two know me best, and in two different ways, so I look most to you two for… well, everything. 😛

Love y’all!

Peace

Hannah

Okay, two e-mails – I also want to share my follow-up e-mail to my mother’s response to the initial e-mail…

Haha! Yep! Get it. Got it. Good. And I liked how what she said inspired my thinking, as opposed to all of the specific things she said for their own value and meaning. Some was great, and a lot was “Okay…..?” The end result, however, was an inspired thinking and evaluation of my current situation of “hard decisions” to be made. I like looking at it as Who do I want to be out of this decision/choice? and What has integrity for who I want to be?

Love y’all.

Peace

Hannah

Post-a-day 2017

Moms as the best

You know how moms can sometimes be just the best thing ever? Yeah, my mom is that a lot of the time. For me, anyway. (Naturally. Haha.) But it makes me wonder about the people who don’t get to experience their moms at all. How do they survive? I ask myself. Without that amazing, extraordinary powerhouse of a woman, how do they ever learn the best parts of life? I suppose they find other women to fill various parts of the role, but certain bits are inevitably left unfulfilled.

Which brings me to my next point: I think I want to be a mom like crazy. But that I want to adopt children.

First off, I am no fan whatsoever of birthing. I laud anyone who does it and who is willing to do it – I could barely manage my first gynecology appointment without throwing up; birth does not seem reasonable for my future from that fact alone. Add to it that I feel it to be, for myself anyway, irresponsible to bring more people into a painfully overpopulated society (read “world”), and the part where I may never have a partner to make the kids with me in the first place, and we’re getting closer and closer to the 0% marker.

However, despite the troubles they bring with them, I want to have kids. At least one, anyway. Sure, I’m terrified of totally messing up him or her. But, I do have confidence in God and the world to help us out wonderfully. So, this leads me to adoption. I’m not sure how I would want to go about it exactly, but I think it has to start with volunteering at children’s homes (read “orphanages”). Eventually, at some point in time, I’ll just know. You know?

I said recently that I would like to have a child in about five years. I think I do mean that. And, no, I do not take this lightly – not in the least. Remember, I’m not filling out the paperwork just yet. I’m merely considering my feelings in terms of possible concrete results. We’ll see what actually happens in another five years.

But I know how the right now I would like things to look, and they include a financially balanced me and a beautiful young child. 🙂

Post-a-day 2017