The Musings of a Latte Queen: Narratives of Everyday Life

A week from tomorrow I will turn forty-five years old. Twenty-five years ago I would've thought that was really old, ancient, two crotchety to do anything fabulous. Wow how we grow up! Today I can't wait, it is the freedom to explore who I am that has allowed me to color my world. My shedding of false notions and donning of a full life began just before I turned forty. I remember being thirty-seven and taking the first step toward an authentic self - I cut off my shoulder-length straight hair and wore a curly fro. The curly fro went to two-strand twists and then in 2007 those became dread locs. I love my natural self. My evolutions is continuing. I have basically become a vegetarian. Not a vegan - I love my lattes too much and pound cake still needs real butter - but a pretty vegetable and rice and grains eating person. I lost 5.4 pounds, unintentional happening of giving up the chicken and turkey. Beef and pork were already things of the past, even the occasional Sun...

So the other night I was hanging out with my teenage son. Rare opportunity that it is. He was helping me get set up for some Saturday morning workshops and after we all had a long Friday night of book fairs and friends, he decided to make that late night run to the grocery store. We are walking through the aisles gathering up snacks for his sister's Brownie troop and fruit for my workshops when the topic turned to his recently ended relationship. Now, the kid knows he is not really allowed to date, even though, in his words, "I'm almost fifteen." I have always held sixteen out as the age of official dating range. Until then, special friend and always with the folks around. Such was the case with his friend. I must say I liked her, his little sisters liked her, and he liked her. What happened? His special friend has a friend who felt like my son was not being "nice" to her. Such is the world of fourteen year old love! So they broke up. Sad. Then my ...

I've been thinking about love and life a lot lately. Perhaps it was the glow on my sister's face when she talked about her partner, Teresa. Or it could be the love that radiates from Reine and Cbabi Bayoc in their joint venture - SweetArt . Maybe it was just viewing the Facebook photos of one of my Mocha Moms and her new baby. It could just be spring waking up and kissing me with her sunshine. Regardless, my thought have turned to love and life and the impact this has had on me in my almost forty-five years. My mind dances and a smile creeps across my face when I think about my sister, almost fifty-six, giddy and joyous and beaming in exuberance. And I learned that this beautiful gift of breath and life is meant to be shared and embraced and experienced fully. Love and life. I am completely in it.

I realized the other day, after 40 days of no meat, that I just don't have time for any more bologna in my life! There was a moment, somewhere when clarity came back and the chicken was out-of-my-system, that I decided, enough is enough. I just can not keep trying to explain or defend myself to someone who just constantly wants to keep me on edge. It also dawned on me that everyone has that "thorn-in-the-side" person who throws in the kitchen sink and loves to play mind games. In a few weeks I will be forty-five years old. Too old to play the mind games. Not too old to still color my world and start something memorable. It all made me realize that even in this recession and people having to redefine themselves that it can make people feel off-center. I just read yesterday that my former employer, Hallmark Cards, Inc. announced it was laying off 550-750 people. News like that keeps coming and behind the headlines are real lives. It is an opportunity. As I feel the o...

This is Holy Week. It is a time of reflection, renewal, and refreshing. In the major mono-theistic religions, there is always a time set aside to repent and recommit oneself to living a life pleasing to God, however way we honor Him. I am a believer of Jesus Christ so this week means to me that I reflect upon my sins and the sins of the world that Jesus bore on the cross. I believe in His resurrection and the new life that I am able to have because He paid the penalty for my wrongdoing. This morning, in an unusually late Tuesday morning, my husband and I talked. It was ironic that our conversation was about the topic of grace, redemption, renewal, and restoration, those very tenants most human beings are looking for. Our conversation started in part because of a news report unveiling yet another church scandal. As we talked, I thought, the problem lies within us - human beings - Americans. This country has a very puritanical viewpoint and anything outside that is judged. That i...