The first time I felt it was in July. I was on vacation with my family in Southern California- my mom and her (really great) new husband and my seven siblings and their spouses and all the accompanying children and babies and dogs. Not the dogs. They stayed home.
We'd been split 6 or 7 weeks. The world did not know. My family carried the brunt of the knowledge and support. They surrounded me with love, with care, with every way they knew to convince me that I would make it out alive.
We were playing pickleball at night. My massive mormon family taking over the courts and playing two, three games at a time. Players switching in and out. Winner stays. Davy needs a partner. Are we playing until 11 or 15? Wow, that's a mean serve you got there, Trav.
I was on a team with my 14 year old niece, Lizzy. Pickleball is not a hard game, but it is new and different and maybe we didn't quite feel secure yet with our abilities. And we were playing my brother and my nephew- tall, athletic men. But we held our own.
The game was so fun. My mom was watching my kids. I felt a complete release of responsibility, of burden, of care. The pressures of saving a marriage, of working two jobs, of trying to manage everyone else's happiness but mine own were gone. Weightless. Free.
"Smash it Lizzy!" An energy and enthusiasm burst out of me.
"Oh, girl, it's all good, I know how it is. We're going to get them on the next one!"
"Yes, that's what I'm talking about! We're killing it!"
Pieces of the old me.
A life, a personality, a person. Inside of me. That's been hidden. Buried under pressure, cracking under the weight of being in charge of every.damn.thing.all.the.time. Coming out again.
I felt it again a few weeks later. With my book club friends at Bear Lake. At the insistence of Sarah, we rented a trampoline for an hour. I would have been fine to sit on the beach and stare into oblivion. Sometimes taking charge of your fun is work, and I have no more energy for work.
But she insisted and pushed and so we paid the money and swam out to the trampoline and there we were- six grown women, in our 30s and 40s, jumping on a trampoline, dancing to Beyonce's Single Ladies on the blue tooth speaker, playing games where we tried to knock each other over, human bowling pins getting bruised and jostled and stamped on. Jumping in and out of the water. In and out. Laughing and dancing and feeling so free free free. Feeling so me me me.
That life, that personality, that person bursting out of me again. The person I was before. The spunk, the laughter, the silliness. I was doing ridiculous, wild things. Yelling absurdities. Trying to get a laugh from my friends and succeeding. Feeling the energy I felt when I was 23 and the world was only full of possibilities and joy and opportunity and laughter.
Pieces of the old me.
That feeling is coming and going regularly now. The old me venturing out again. On Saturday when I was hitchhiking up the canyon with my friend because we left the key in the car and I felt no fear, no intimidation, just boldness and excitement sticking my thumb out and waiting for them to pull over.
When I went to a Weezer concert and a midget sized and totally high man started dancing on me and my friend and I laughed and went with it, circling him, shaking our arms all around him, singing "Oh, oo, ee, I look just like Buddy Holly..."
Last week when I sent my friend a series of ridiculous and good looking and probably inappropriate memes and pictures of Antoni from Queer Eye. (Oh heavens, has a more good looking human ever existed?)
Today when I made dinner and was dancing and cooking and screaming the music to Hamilton, "I'm just like my country- young scrappy and hungry and I'M NOT THROWING AWAY MY SHOT!"
That old me.
She's still in there.
We'd been split 6 or 7 weeks. The world did not know. My family carried the brunt of the knowledge and support. They surrounded me with love, with care, with every way they knew to convince me that I would make it out alive.
We were playing pickleball at night. My massive mormon family taking over the courts and playing two, three games at a time. Players switching in and out. Winner stays. Davy needs a partner. Are we playing until 11 or 15? Wow, that's a mean serve you got there, Trav.
I was on a team with my 14 year old niece, Lizzy. Pickleball is not a hard game, but it is new and different and maybe we didn't quite feel secure yet with our abilities. And we were playing my brother and my nephew- tall, athletic men. But we held our own.
The game was so fun. My mom was watching my kids. I felt a complete release of responsibility, of burden, of care. The pressures of saving a marriage, of working two jobs, of trying to manage everyone else's happiness but mine own were gone. Weightless. Free.
"Smash it Lizzy!" An energy and enthusiasm burst out of me.
"Oh, girl, it's all good, I know how it is. We're going to get them on the next one!"
"Yes, that's what I'm talking about! We're killing it!"
Pieces of the old me.
A life, a personality, a person. Inside of me. That's been hidden. Buried under pressure, cracking under the weight of being in charge of every.damn.thing.all.the.time. Coming out again.
I felt it again a few weeks later. With my book club friends at Bear Lake. At the insistence of Sarah, we rented a trampoline for an hour. I would have been fine to sit on the beach and stare into oblivion. Sometimes taking charge of your fun is work, and I have no more energy for work.
But she insisted and pushed and so we paid the money and swam out to the trampoline and there we were- six grown women, in our 30s and 40s, jumping on a trampoline, dancing to Beyonce's Single Ladies on the blue tooth speaker, playing games where we tried to knock each other over, human bowling pins getting bruised and jostled and stamped on. Jumping in and out of the water. In and out. Laughing and dancing and feeling so free free free. Feeling so me me me.
That life, that personality, that person bursting out of me again. The person I was before. The spunk, the laughter, the silliness. I was doing ridiculous, wild things. Yelling absurdities. Trying to get a laugh from my friends and succeeding. Feeling the energy I felt when I was 23 and the world was only full of possibilities and joy and opportunity and laughter.
Pieces of the old me.
That feeling is coming and going regularly now. The old me venturing out again. On Saturday when I was hitchhiking up the canyon with my friend because we left the key in the car and I felt no fear, no intimidation, just boldness and excitement sticking my thumb out and waiting for them to pull over.
When I went to a Weezer concert and a midget sized and totally high man started dancing on me and my friend and I laughed and went with it, circling him, shaking our arms all around him, singing "Oh, oo, ee, I look just like Buddy Holly..."
Last week when I sent my friend a series of ridiculous and good looking and probably inappropriate memes and pictures of Antoni from Queer Eye. (Oh heavens, has a more good looking human ever existed?)
Today when I made dinner and was dancing and cooking and screaming the music to Hamilton, "I'm just like my country- young scrappy and hungry and I'M NOT THROWING AWAY MY SHOT!"
That old me.
She's still in there.
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