mind body mama: Baker's Dozen

Some things I’ve learned of late and some others I remembered that I already knew:

1. How to run on a treadmill.
2. How to sip tequila.
3. Your in-laws are your family too.
4. Just because something makes my heart race and my hands shake doesn’t mean it’s an emergency.  And even if it is an emergency, it might not be my emergency.
5. Life requires white space: quiet, empty, unscheduled time when anything might happen, especially resting, laughing, puttering and napping.  All of life requires this restoration but some periods require abundantly more of it; periods of grieving, for example.
6. If I don’t know something I have to ask.  Shame, frustration and pretending I know all the answers waste energy better used learning.  Just ask, and keep asking until I know what I need to know.
7. There is no greater accomplishment for a writer than the praise of one’s high school English teacher.
8. I am a person of great faith and my faith is growing still.  Even if I can’t imagine how something will change I want to believe that it will get better.  Just because I can’t figure out a solution to a problem doesn’t mean the solution doesn’t exist.  This gives me hope.
9. This system we have with mothers, where they drive you batty most of your life and then they die, is very bad.
10. That thing about never going to bed angry is bullshit.  You’re not even really angry, you’re just tired.  Stop talking and go to sleep.
11. Nothing helps in every case but there are some things that almost always help.  Bacon, for example.  Dancing in a short skirt.  Joan Jett.  Anything by Joss Whedon.  Holding my kid.  Working out until I feel like puking.  Singing hymns.  Hitting things really hard.  Sitting around in a dark bar with the women I love, telling the truth about our lives and laughing until we choke. 
12. Auntie Ollie said it best: “A prayer never hurts.”
13. "When you can't run, you crawl. And when you can't do that...you find someone to carry you."