Happy New Year Helen Reddy

Strangely, I can remember the summer of my tenth year as if it were yesterday. This is strange because I can remember yesterday as dimly as if it were 42 years ago. It was the summer of 72, the world was ripe with possibilities! My days were filled with swimming, participating in neighborhood talent shows (my go to talent was my back bend from a standing position, always a crowd pleaser), walks to The Meat Block for Mountain Dews and waiting for the ice cream man. My nights were reserved for the bounty of wonderful television of that era; The Odd Couple, The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, and occasionally the scandalous Love American Style. On the very best of summer nights I would enjoy The Sleepover. It warms my heart that although life has changed in a million different ways for my kids, The Sleepover is still the pinnacle for the 9-12 year old set.

One of the very best sleepover hosts was my friend Trina. Trina's Mom not only let Trina have sleepovers but she would take it a step further to the ultimate grand supreme, The Pajama Party! I can picture Trina's house so clearly. She lived in a split level, so exotic compared to my ho hum ranch. Trina's Mom was a widow. It was just Trina and her brother and her Mom. Somehow, this too made Trina's household exotic. I remember Trina's Mom as being funny and nice and somehow strong. She was a "Women's Libber". The song of that summer was "I am Woman" by Helen Reddy. I loved it and I loved Mrs. Tautz, they made me so proud of my ten year old womanhood! Oh the things we could do. We were strong and invincible and we were in numbers too big to ignore! While I wasn't exactly clear on what invincible meant I knew if Mrs. Tautz had it playing in her house then it was okay by me! At the ripe old age of ten I was a women's libber. It was the 70's I could be whatever I wanted to be. By the fall of that year I enjoyed a short lived  subscription to Ms. magazine. In the spring I stopped wearing my bra. I look back fondly on that summer and that season of American life.

 It is 2015 and thankfully, January is almost halfway gone. I say thankfully because my Facebook newsfeed, email, grocery store magazine section and even the nightly news will begin their slow retreat from The Lists. You know the lists I am talking about; The Five Foods You Should Stop Eating Now, The Ten Secrets of Youthful Skin, the Three Top Beauty Finds of 2015, the Four Keys to a Successful Cleanse and on and on. The lists are typically for women exclusively and more times than not are generated by women. I am exhausted and overwhelmed by them, mostly I am left feeling discouraged by them. I was just celebrating the New Year, minding my own business and then BAM! I find out that I am doing everything wrong! The wrong soap, moisturizer, diet, shampoo, make up, exercise; my life is a mess!

I'm not sure why I can remember the summer of 72 so clearly. The years that flank it are mostly mist covered. I am thankful for the memory as I review the lists of 2015. I am hopeful that the woman I was when I was ten will see me through another year in this new century and that she has informed the way I have parented my girls and my boys. That ten year old girl understood the possibilities beyond The Lists, she knew what was what and even at 10 she knew how to roar!

Blue Light Special

My family spent the Christmas holiday in Florida, lucky us! As a result we went to Christmas Eve Mass at the local parish, St. Henry's. We attended Christmas Eve Mass there last year and loved it. The quirky and eclectic mix of people, the VERY joyful elder Cantor, the hilarious Priest who upon noticing our family insisted that everyone give my daughters a round of applause, the whole thing was perfect!  I should mention that when we arrived at St. Henry's we were pretty much ready to kill each other; isn't that how most families feel as they pull into the parking lot on the big day? Anyway. I digress. My in laws and my husband's sister and her husband and their kids were all joining us this year. My 12 year excitedly telling his cousin,"this church is so much fun, I actually liked going to church." It is moments like this that really make faith sharing worth it. Am I right?

When we pulled in we noticed that some renovations had taken place. I felt happy for the parishioners of St. Henry's. "This is nice! They deserve it", I thought to myself, remembering the lady with the bouffant hairdo, the woman with the two grown sons who all sat at an odd distance from her husband, and of course the Cantor with his Bronx accent and big voice. As I contemplate this now, I'm not certain what type of people wouldn't deserve a little new stained glass but I am still warm in the glow of the season and will leave that little puzzler for a different day.

Have you ever really recommended a movie to someone and then watched it with them only to realize it wasn't quite as good as you thought? Well, that was Christmas Eve this year. The Cantor (now also promoted to Deacon, God bless him) was still there and still just a half beat ahead and enthusiastic as ever. The priest was different and just not the one we had fallen in love with. The thing that got me however, were the candles. When I was a little girl, we would stop in church during the week to light a candle, plunk in our quarters for the church and pray in the beautiful silence. Blue candle glass flickering, the smell of wood and wax and incense lingering in the air as thousands of prayers hung above us making their way to God. For me, church and Church were inseparable.

Through the years I have understood the distinction between the two. This has been at times helpful, hopeful and hurtful. This Christmas Eve as my eyes and mind wandered, they rested on the familiar and comforting sight of that flickering blue candle glass. It was then I noticed the little white button in front of each candle. One of the "improvements" to St. Henry's was the installation of electrical candles that could be "lit" with the press of a button. I sighed as the congregation broke out into a rousing rendition of, "Come all Ye Faithful" and then joined in, "Oh come let us adore Him!!!"

As we were leaving my son was explaining that it was good but not nearly as good as last year to his cousin. Another child remarked, "but aren't those candles cool? I just lit one and said a prayer."