from a grandbaby perspective

My name is Evelyn Mae. I am a grandbaby to whom all this great advice is directed. I have limitations because I'm, like, way short. But I see stuff. You guys need to chill and stare deeply into this. Bring your A-Game or call in sick.

one I am in charge here. If you ever forget that, try to go for a midnight taco run and then remember that it's a felony to leave a sleeping, teeny weeny, perfect, baby in a crib. Yea. I know. It's harsh, but I am kinda going to call all the shots from now on. Well, not like forever, but for a long long unspeakably long time. It will work out great for all of us so long as you remember that one thing. I could go on, ad nauseum, about what all this entails, how many compromises you will have to make, the blood, the sweat... the tears.... but: Life is short, I know you don't want to actually have to hear me tell you these things.

two If you feed me three, maybe four, pounds of fresh organic tomatoes when I am on a seriously bad-ass road trip, you will have to help me clean up. Dude. I am a baby. You cannot plead ignorance and you cannot feed my weakness  for vegetables. Seriously. You are fifty and I am not yet two. You do the math, think about the acid in tomatoes and give my mom a call. She was not a happy navigator.

three I know that you have to have some fingerprints on my spirit before all is said and done. This is what you grown-ups do as evolved mammals. I'm good with that. You need to own it. Engage. Teach me to sit up straight, make eye contact, use my manners, dumptster dive, pass algebra, read a book, feed the homeless and manage. Expect something of me. Cope. Help me cope. It's going to take every single one of you. Yea. Even you. You didn't even know that you mattered, but it's nutty what matters to a baby.  I count on you to think happy thoughts and keep your shit together. (I am allowed to talk like that on Momo's Porch of Immunity. She said so. The grown-ups can't hear it.)

copyright 2011 moemasters thesethreethings evelyn mae

Just These Three. Unless There's More.

I've had enough time thinking and too many hours listening, so I'm not going to make you listen to me tell you this stuff. If I have loved you, or were going to love you – I would want you to come armed with this.

I'm all about making the most of our time together.

I'm not going to waste it listening to me talk.

Know these three things today:

ONE

Perhaps this above all else: You are funny and brave and strong and smart. Your beauty shines from within and will always enter a room right before you. Your mother and father are like this too. This is an asset that you have gained simply by being born. Never think less. Have a back bone about it. Don’t sell yourself short or compromise your integrity.

Not everybody gets this Super-Power, guard it and use it wisely. Never take it for granted and be sure to notice it occasionally, as it gets better with age.

TWO

Everybody and every (little) thang has a job to do. The bats have to eat mosquitoes day after day, bears probably keep the wolf population in check (or some other equally important deal) and every person you meet is going to have survived some harsh and heinous stuff.

They’re doing the best they can, day after day. They never put their pants on in the morning and go, “y’know... I think I’ll crush some souls today.”

Life happens. We are evolved humans. We all have limitations and thumbs. It’s a crazy old world out here and those are the givens.

THREE

Cope. Don’t yell and scream and stomp your feet and get all litigious and indignant about the injustice of it all. Almost nobody who hurts you MEANT to hurt you. It’s just life. For real. Get all the way over it. We all have a job to do. Breathe. Relax. It really is all good.

If you’re doing your job right, there will come days when you are so heart-broke and sick and crippled by the weight of life you will wish you were done. You will lay down and look up at the heavens and beg the only God you ever believed in, to spare you....

Suck it up.

There will come days that pass into weeks where you are so blissed-out you will forget to eat. You will have crazy, uncontrollable cartoon tears of joy and you will laugh so hard it hurts for days. If you are doing your job right - there will be more bliss than sorrow.

More good rug burns, less broken noses.

It really IS all good. It balances out. 

Do what you’re here to do and do it with passion. If you pay attention, you’ll know what you’re here for long before you know that you’re old enough to even know it. 

Just trust your instincts. 

If you’re supposed to be something that you think you’re not – figure it out and turn it around. Life is too short.

Some family is choice and some is blood.

We will always be related.

COPYRIGHT APRIL 2010: TheseThreeThings