Last week was Thanksgiving here. For those who are outside the United States, I'm sure it's a strange holiday that appears all we do is sit down and stuff our mouths until we get sick. Well, in some cases that might be true, but in our family we try to make it a point to reflect on things we are thankful for and mentally and/or verbally express those things as we sit together as a family. This year was an extra special holiday, because not only is it a national holiday, but it paired up with my mom's birthday. It made me think for some time about why I'm grateful for her life. For one, I wouldn't be here writing these thoughts down.
Between my parents, I'm more like her. Quiet, serene, and hater of attention, she quietly worked her way through life without requiring a lot of attention. I mean that literally. She is extremely industrious even to the point that if she's not working her hands, she feels like she's wasting time. That's not my favorite memory of her though. My fond memory of her goes back to my childhood. My disabled brother used to get sick a lot, and there were other painful incidents he experienced as well. I have a beautiful memory of those times when my mom would sit down on his bedroom floor and cradle him in her arms. She wasn't a singer, but she had these made up songs that she would sing to him with her gentle voice. Even when I wasn't in the room, I would hear her singing down the hallway. We all used to laugh at her made up songs, but in that moment, it was a beautiful sound and incredibly tender.
It was last week that I was helping her look for something in her papers, and came across this note that she wrote about my birth for a get-to-know-you activity. It was a writing about how she came up with my name. I admit I ran off with it to take a copy for saving in my files. It's always interesting how little things like that don't really mean that much in the moment, but over time, they become more and more valuable.
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| How I got my name. |
As a side note from this letter, a few years ago my aunt (her sister) mentioned during a conversation that she claimed Rebecca when they were younger as a child's name. Between the dream and this, I claim that my name came from divine inspiration. 😁
Aside from these influxes of memories, I had some other things happen last week of a bit more into the personal interest category. First thing, I got this crazy idea to challenge myself into learning the descant on a choir number for Christmas that only one other girl was doing, and I tried a hand at it (alone since the other girl wasn't at that practice). It was my first attempt and I wasn't sure what I was doing, but low and behold, the choir director said she heard someone singing it and wondered who it was. Achievement #1: I actually sang at least part of it loud enough to be heard. I'm in the middle of doing a influx of daily practices to get better at it, because when I finally got to do it with her, I was unprepared, and she was throwing me off. The challenge is on, and I say, "Bring it on!" I'm not always scared that easily. Another eventful moment for the week, I got my booster, and it went a lot better than that second injection. And yet another challenge for the week was my having to synchronize meal times between my two people a little more than usual, because of the holiday. On a normal week, someone comes in to help with my brother, but they take holidays, so the poor guy had to look at my mug every day. 😉
Ah well, life goes on. We can do this.
