Girls Raised in the Hood

Have you heard the country song entitled “You’re gonna miss this”? It’s about life, and how it moves on, quickly, and enjoying the moment we’re in, and not wishing it away.

The voices of the “girls raised in (our) Hood” fill the house. The front door opens and closes a thousand times. The visa card is being pulled in and out of my wallet again and again.( I’m not looking forward to the day the bill comes in. ) They gather around my kitchen island like they have a thousand times. Stories about boys bring out sighs of empathy, peals of  laughter and sage teenage advice, actually filled with a lot of wisdom. Moms in our Hood, “you done good”. Our girls aren’t perfect but they’ve got wisdom beyond their years. Maybe they don’t use it for themselves all the time, but they’ve got it. Thank God. They’ve got it.

Up the stairs they go, taking their energy and their innocent, hopeful and expectant conversations into the teenage lair that is our upstairs. Their picnic lunch is packed. Time to lie around while they do their rendition of Project Runway, examining, critiquing, and trying on each others clothes and the plethora of styles in my girl’s closet. That closet represents all her tastes and moods, so many sales and “had-to-haves”, and lots and lots of her hard-earned baby-sitting money. That closet is one of the things she loves about life and sharing it with her fellow fashionista’s makes it all the sweeter.

I’m supposed to be listening to a podcast right now. Not really supposed to be, but wanta be. That’s a part of my day that I love, and I love that I can do it in the morning, or late at night when my early-to-bed- early-to-rise husband has gone on to dreamland, and I am waiting for one or both of my girls to walk through the door and flop down on the couch and start my very favorite part of my day…the download. All the details of their day, what someone said, how it made them feel, how they are processing just growing up.

But instead of listening to my podcast, I pull the ear plugs out, and just sit and listen to them. Does their conversation have the life-changing stuff this podcast contains? No, but when they all go off to college in three weeks I can listen to a million podcasts. I can sit and read my beloved books. My visa won’t be straining like it is now. But their voices, their laughter, their refreshing innocent outlook on life will be filling dorm rooms and hallways far away from here.

So for now I’m setting aside all the things I can do while they’re gone and just sitting and listening to that beloved sound, as if I were at a great  symphony. Because it is music to me. The best kind. Music that represents 18 years of physical, emotional and spiritual energy. Countless hours of prayer, meals and snacks and packed lunches. Rattles and push-toys and baby dolls and bikes and now, cars. And boys!  Oh the boys. Sweet little crushes that are since forgotten or bring belly laughs. Now the boy talk is more serious. Where does he stand with God? What does he want to do with his life? And for Momma, where does he want to live?

I need to get up from this spot, this vantage point and get on with my day. I strain and look at the clock. Gotta go. Come on, get up, get going. But this “music” is intoxicating…and fleeting.

I stand on the fringe of a new frontier. Motherhood is taking a new turn, changing. I look up at the framed chalkboard in my “coffice” and read the words I wrote, “EMBRACE CHANGE”. I don’t want to, Plain and Simple. I know the pain of “kicking against the goads”, I have done it, I am doing it. Although I see the joy college graduations and weddings and grandbabies have brought to my peers, right now, I don’t want to let go of this moment, this season. It took a whole lot to get to this sweet spot. The days of them rolling their eyes and then vehemently denying that they did it, are over. All that hard work and hope has paid off. Now its time to enjoy them as very young friends. Very fun friends. My favorite kind of friends.

And Voila’, they are good cooks! One of them just brought me a plate of the yummiest chicken salad ever, the other is making a delish gourmet supper tonight.

 Yes, bring on the long-awaited perks!!

 And Lord. Show me how to navigate from this sweet spot to the next one you have in store for me. “Cause you know I’m all about sweet spots!

 But more than that, show me what I can do for and with you. Let’s do a little Cosmic project together…that sounds like fun.