Perfect Moments: Freestylin'

Today's moment...

It was late, we were all tired from a long day with family. We were driving back to Mississippi from Alabama and my husband and I were trying to explain the art of freestyle rapping to our three year-old. After a run down on the basics, our son gave it his best shot and though the lyrics weren't very....sophisticated...he had the heart and the rhythm to make up for it. Just hanging out in the car, the three of us, and sharing music we all mutually enjoy has been one of the best moments of our trip thus far.

Perfect Moments: Spa Day

Today's moment....


Today was such a nice day! I spent it at the Beau Rivage Spa with my mother-in-law. We passed the time relaxing in the sauna, taking in the view of the Gulf Coast, walking along the bridge, and soaking sore muscles in a warm jacuzzi. But, the perfect moment of the day came when I was laying out in the sun looking at the gulf and the fine-grained, white sand along the beach with the warm breeze gently blowing over my body. Normally, in a moment like this, I would be preoccupied by wondering if my son was ok or if he might be missing me or be upset about me spending a day away. That wasn't the case today. I was able to just drink it all in with a free mind. It took me so long to realize that if I do not give myself times like these and do things I enjoy on my own every now and then, I am not only doing myself a disservice, but also my family. Why? Because when I return, I return with renewed enthusiasm for life, for my dreams--a renewed desire to be a better wife, mother, friend.

Perfect Moments: Young Love, Revisited

Today's moment...

One of the reasons why I love coming to visit our family down South is that it is one of the very few times my husband and I get to go out without our son. I love my son, think about him all the time...even when we are out...but, every parent understands that feeling you get when you and your spouse get to reconnect on a one-on-one level and devote our full, undivided attention to one another. It may be just me....but, at first, I always feel a bit odd--don't know exactly what to do. It is like I have to remember how to turn off the "mommy" switch and just be the Monica I was when my husband and I first got together. Though I have changed... grown up a bit...in many ways I am still that girl. Eventually, we find the groove again and for a moment...a brief, but beautiful, moment...we are the young lovers once more. More than content to be in each other's company, to simply be near each other. We hold hands and give each other those gentle touches that, at the start, would send chills down our spine....and are pleasantly surprised to find they still do.

Life tries its darndest to trip us up, keep us too busy or too complacent to remember just how incredible our spouses are. But we have to do what we can, when we can, to slow it down enough to catch our breath and breath new life into, invigorate, our relationships...to remember them as they were when love was new while, at the same time, deepen our appreciation for who our spouses have become and how the roots of our love have grown deeper with the passing of time.

Perfect Moments: Apple bottom jeans, boots wit da ferrr

Today's moment came courtesy of none other but the people who started the Zumba craze and the "king" of auto-tune....Mr. T-Pain. Had he not put out this superficial yet moving piece of music, I would have never had the following picture in my mind to make me laugh and smile for years to come!

Picture this:

A room full of good ol' Bible Belt, church-goin' Mississippi women, T-Pain's "Apple-Bottom Jeans" song blaring out the speakers, AND.... my 50 somethin' year-old mother-in-law giving "her big booty a smack" and "hit[ting] the floor, next thing you know, [she got] low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low". I couldn't help but laugh inside, thinking "this woman's gonna' get toooo low and is going to need ME to help her back up!"

Two things to take away from this moment:
1. The revelation that Southern women can, surprisingly, do Latin moves some justice
2. A memory that is sure to cheer me up should I be visited by a rainy day in the future

Perfect Moments: Southern Sunset

Today's moment....



Me, sitting on the front porch, watching my son help his Grandma out by watering her lawn for her. Their two opposing silhouettes in the foreground and a Southern peach sunset in the background. The silent sound of empty country roads, accompanied by the gentle beating of a grateful heart.

Perfect Moments: Home

Today's moment....

Today we traveled all day long from our home in California to get to New Orleans. The perfect moment came when we stepped out of the Louis Armstrong airport in NOLA and felt that sweet, humid, Southern evening breeze. Some may complain of the humidity down here but, to me, it is like a warm blanket welcoming me to a place that in many ways feels more like "home" than home to me. I love it here. They grow some good men...and I think I might have been been a Southerner in a past life because the food here just suits me soooo well:)!!! Down here life is slow....but, not in a bad way. Just as it is with their cooking, the slower you let it come to a simmer, the more developed the flavor. The flavor of the South is charm and soul mixed in with a pinch of humility, and a heap full of warmth. Feels good to be home.

Perfect Moments: Pure Luck

Today I read something that completely blew me away. There was an article on Yahoo about the rape of women in the Congo. EVERY DAY (when averaged out) there are 1, 152 women raped (approx. 48 an hour---to read the article see http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110512/ap_on_re_af/af_congo_rape. Also, see http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2005/congo.asp on what one woman, personally affected by the war has gone through...caution..it is very graphic). And that is a conservative number as many women do not report their rape to someone. This is devastatingly horrific to me, not only as a woman, but as a human. If this doesn't shake you, I don't know what will. I just think to myself, "What in the world can I do?" Sex violence has been a part of war-torn countries for centuries, but I cannot simply accept it as the way things are. Awareness, I think, is the first step. Sharing that awareness with others, the next. After that? Still thinking on that.

Although I realize that picking this article as the "Perfect Moment" of the day seems out of line, let me explain. When I read articles like these about people across the globe, it hurts me. But, in that hurt, I find a reason to be thankful. I am thankful for the hurt because it shows me that I, like all of us, am connected to everyone else....even people a world away. It reminds me of the very basic needs that we all share and makes me think about the hows and whys. How did I happen to be born in such a different condition from these women in the Congo? Why? It was not because I am better than them. It was not because I am from a blessed people and they from a cursed. It is out of pure chance....at least this is my thinking on this. Some may disagree. But, I really do believe that it is possible, had the events of history been different, that I could have been the one born in a country where the rape of women is so commonplace. Coming from this perspective... this belief of the way people are connected, it is extremely difficult for me to support wars, ours or theirs, as in any war, people---PEOPLE!!!--individuals...like me (most, of whom, are innocent) die. Because it could just as easily be me.