Hey, Siestas!

This week I never even put up my big fat red clumsy suitcase. (It’s got to be big enough to carry my fan. I never, ever leave home without my fan.)  I just pulled out the jeans from last weekend’s Wyoming trip and started putting in speaking clothes for this weekend’s Boston trip. Good thing I like to travel. Travis, the LPL team, Michelle and I are looking so forward to being in New England this weekend. Can you imagine a more perfect time than early Fall? I wish I could stay a while!

I love Boston. I had one of my very first grown up feelings there many years ago. The whole nation was in a financial slump at the time but that part of the country was in deeper despair than we were. Houston was still afloat in a puddle of oil. Keith got the idea to fly to Boston and interview men with experience in home services (plumbing, AC, etc) who might be out of a job and willing to relocate. Turned out to be a wise move. He asked me if I wanted to go with him and in those days I never left home unless it was for a well-scheduled-in-advance speaking engagement. They were mostly in Texas in those days and within driving distance for my Chevy station wagon.(By myself in a car with no cell phone. It amazes me now.)

By strict routine, I was gone two Friday nights a month and no more. This was the hook Keith used to reel me in like a fish: “We’ll stay in a hotel and everything.” It was a date. I got my Mom to help me with the girls (in elementary school at the time). Keith and I hopped on that plane and flew to the Northeast like real grown ups, which we were but didn’t know it. He conducted interviews for two days while I took the city on foot and must have walked ten solid miles visiting one historical sight after another.  I do love some American history.

I got my own map, chose my own sights, bought my own tickets to three tours and made friends with perfect strangers. I relived every scene at every spot in my wild imagination. I don’t know why that first trip to Boston stands out in my mind so strongly. I guess because I went straight from my mama’s house…to the dorm room …down the church aisle… to the hospital where I had one baby…and then another. Independence was not even a word in my vocabulary.  That day in Boston, I realized – for just the merest moment – that I was an individual. Not just somebody’s daughter, sister, wife or mother, as much as I cherished those relationships and would not have traded them for the world. For two whole days I just did what I wanted to. I didn’t have to please another soul. Not a great way to live but, oh, sister. It can be a great way to spend a day. It was beautiful those two days in Boston, Massachusetts and icy cold and I warmed my hands on a continuous drip of good dark coffee. And I did one of my very favorite things. I learned stuff.

And then I got homesick and went back home. Back to being somebody’s daughter, sister, wife and mother. And I was glad but I never forgot those two days in Boston when I pulled my big hair back in a pony tail, threw caution to the wind, and got rocked in the Cradle of Liberty.

I don’t know. It was just fun.

Lord have mercy. Where did that come from??

Here’s what I got on here to ask: Are any of you heading that direction for our Living Proof Live this coming Friday and Saturday? Or do any of you wish you could but don’t have the money for the ticket?? Well, that’s exactly what the Siesta Scholarship Fund is all about.

Call Living Proof Ministries at 1-888-700-1999 during work hours on Thursday or Friday and talk to either Kimberly or Susan. They’ll fix up the first 15 or so of you who call.

I love you guys.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 at 8:37 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.