Month: January 2020

Posted in Family, Faith and Fitness

Driveway Moments

Posted on by Lucretia Cahill

Have you ever made that last turn into your driveway while roughly-harmonizing with Tom Petty’ s Free Fallin’ …or became so glued to a Teri Gross interview with Toni Morrison that you stay in the car for just one more minute to listen or sing or connect?

Maybe you are just so excited that the used car you bought came with heated seats, that you enjoy the comfort while listening to the last at-bat of the Braves game.

That is your “driveway moment”.

The Urban Dictionary defines the driveway moment as “the inability to leave one’s car after arriving at the destination because of the riveting nature of a story you’re listening to on the radio; especially on NPR.”

I’ve sat in our minivan riveted to a story about American chestnut trees and how they are nearly extinct due to a disease called “chestnut blight.” Another kept me listening to why PLAY is critical for children’s social and neurological development.

Whatever keeps you planted in your driveway after a long commute or a jaunt to the grocery store, take just one MORE minute and listen to someone else’s story, or sing at the top of your lungs and help John Mellencamp remind Jack and Diane to “Hold on to sixteen as long as you can!”

Maybe you’ll discover a tidbit about Toni Morrison like I did…she became a Catholic at age 12, nice connection.

What was your latest driveway moment?

 

 

Posted in Family, Faith and Fitness, Parenting/Running/Pets, siblings

Find a kitten, pick it up…

Posted on by Lucretia Cahill

Sometimes it seems life is a blurry, distant event seen through the lens of an iPhone while the meaningful, real-time, share-with-my-parents-moments are the ones I commit to memory.

Here’s one of my favorite most recent memories with Zavier, the youngest in our sweet brood:

One summer day, Zavier and I went to Home Depot in pursuit of paint colors for the kid’s bedrooms. He was given the task of selecting a color for Cora’s room since she declared, “I have too many decisions to make! Someone just PLEASE pick a color for me!” Zavier obliged and was ready for the challenge.

As we walked past the pallets of ferns and rows of grills we suddenly saw a kitten dart directly in front of a huge pickup truck. “We have to…” I said. Zavier replied, “Of course we do…I’ll go look under the grills.” Two hours later, after wading through the perennials in search of those sweet green kitten eyes, we caught the little guy…and along with a few new friends, took him to the vet and found him a home. In true character, Zavier was patient, kind and loving. And now for some reason, he feels he needs to set out “at least an hour” to go to Home Depot.

Yes, this is just another moment. Not caught on video, just logged in our memories. We did, however, take a quick snapshot of the little guy and later picked out a trending gray color for Cora’s room.

So today, peek around the lens of your phone and celebrate the real world, it’s full of remarkable moments.

Posted in Family, Faith and Fitness

Grocery store moment

Posted on by Lucretia Cahill

I tend to think in stories. Whether I conjure up an elaborate tale about why the couple in front of me at Costco is purchasing 10 boxes of gummy bears, 3 vats of mayonnaise, and one rotisserie chicken…(birthday party serving gummies and chicken salad heavy on the mayo?) or the everyday share-at-the-kitchen table stuff I find funny and priceless.

My sharing moment happened while browsing through the ice cream aisle on New Year’s Eve:

Obviously, in the same mindset as other shoppers on the last day of the year, my handheld basket weighed heavily as I slid the “healthy” dark chocolate, cheese and crackers aside to make room for the “buy one get one free” ice cream. After all, we all ran, swam or biked today and it IS the last day of the year. And WHAT IF I decide to start 2020 as a vegan? Best to splurge now.

As I squinted at the ingredients on the ice cream boxes (font sizes are getting smaller as I get older), I heard a joyful “Hi, Mrs. Cahill!”. I turned away from the sea of Rocky Road and recognized a sweet, scrappy second grader I had in a class I subbed for last month. I said hello and he gave me one of those genuine seven-year-old smiles that double as a hug without even trying.

His mom called him over and I heard, “Oh mom, she was my sub one day at school”.

“Which woman?” asked his mom.

He quickly replied, “Not the old one.”

I quickly glanced around and saw one other woman in the aisle who embraced her gray hair more boldly than I…

Finally! I WASN’T THE OLD ONE!

You see, for years I thought I was the youngest in most groups. Then one day as I looked around the room at a PTA meeting, I realized I was most certainly the only one who could identify a VCR, rotary phone and the fleeting existence of an eight-track system (pre-cassette tape). But this time folks, I WASN’T THE “OLD ONE”!

So that’s my moment. Quick. Memorable. Heart-warming and one I’ll log in my memory when I need a chuckle and a little ego boost only a second grader can deliver.

What was your memorable moment today?

Posted in Family, Faith and Fitness, Parenting/Running/Pets

Every 2020 moment counts

Posted on by Lucretia Cahill

In college, I remember the first week of every term. A handful of syllabi for five or six classes clutched in my hand leafing through each to see when the final was scheduled, how much it was worth, and when I should start stressing about it. Tapping into some crafty self-talk, I told myself, “I can do anything for a semester”.

Somehow, back then, I knew I could get through the readings, homework, papers, and tests semester by semester. Anne Lamott tells a story of her brother tackling a last-minute report on birds when their father stepped in and told him to simply pick one bird and write about it, then move on to the next. Just go “Bird by Bird,” he said. So I also went bird by bird. Small steps eventually led to my Bachelor’s, a ton of real work experience, and later a Master’s Degree.

In our longer-than-most Christmas card, I wrote: “This year I feel our lives have been hitched to a race car skidding from school to work to practice and maybe home for dinner. The busy is as exhilarating as it is exhausting. In all the frenzy, even our traditions have been flipped on their backsides and altered to squeeze into schedules. But the moment we allow ourselves to log off digitally and mentally is when personal connections have a chance to resurface. So, in my attempt to keep the good stuff from rolling away with the tide, I bottled up some moments and stories to share.”

So friends, in this new decade and new year, let’s gather our moments, parse them out and share them. I’ll do my best to amass the virtuous with the vicious moments and share them here, bird by bird, moment by moment.