Saturday, January 2, 2010

"I'm ambivalent."

A phrase my parents taught me when I was barely speaking, I guess to amuse their friends. It must have been funny, though!

But I am a bit.

The last ten years were the first ten years of motherhood, which has been just the most amazing experience of my life. My children are thriving, intelligent, healthy, a joy to my life and cause of much consternation (of course).

The last ten years have been something of a political and social awakening, however, and not for good reasons. The Bush Years, starting with the Supreme Court appointment of the President, through the worst terrorist attack on American soil, through the heartless reaction to Hurricane Katrina, straight on through the things we are still learning about torture and politicization and pointless war. I became a high-information voter, a blogger, a writer of news (with a left-leaning bias, admittedly), and a videographer by necessity to stop my head from exploding.

My relationships have had their ups and downs but seem to be going in a good direction. I have certainly clarified what I think my purpose is here in the world and in my community. And I have come to many conclusions about how I would like my life to be going forward.

So, although I am not making any resolutions to break and be disappointed in myself (honestly, haven't we done enough of that?), I do have hopes for the Tens or the Tweens or whatever they are:

  • I hope my children turn out well-adjusted and find something that they are passionate about to do.
  • I hope everyone around me knows how much I love them.
  • I hope my marriage grows in love and friendship
  • I hope that the people in power in our country find a way to be truly compassionate, to work for the common good, to remember "the general welfare" is in our founding documents, to shine some light in the dark places that will shame us, but sterilize us as well.
And I hope for you, my dear readers, that your Tweens are healthy, happy, joyous, fulfilling, fun, challenging and whatever you want them to be!

May peace prevail upon the earth.