Karma

I've thought a lot about karma in the last 18 months....

You see, when my mom got sick, I got sad....and then I got angry.  I was raised believing that all the nice, selfless acts you did in life would pay you dividends in the end.  But, I was bitter. We lost our dad already.....mom missed him, and struggled for money without his income.  I felt that if anyone deserved a break, it was her.

And yet, here we were...we lost our dad, money was tight, and as my mom reached the age where she could retire and enjoy herself, in an instant, she was diagnosed with stage 4 uterine cancer. 

I just didn't get it.  What did we do?  Why is this happening?  My mom is the most amazing person/mom/grandma.  This whole "karma" thing was clearly BS!

I had this feeling for about a week.  A week - until my mom had surgery to remove a tumor that should have been removed (diagnosed) months before.

I was sitting in her hospital room at Swedish in Seattle one day, when the flower cart guy came by (he flirted with her, but she's a beautiful woman, and I was used to that).  I sat there....waiting to see which bouquet was hers.

As he started unloading EVERY flower on his cart, he smiled with a comment.  "I don't know who you are, or what you do, Teresa, but you are the most popular person in this hospital."

Minutes later I looked at Facebook, there were lemonade stands and fundraisers in her honor, and my phone blew up with texts and messages checking on her.

And now, as we reach the end of our journey, and the house fills with with flowers and cards, my epiphany continues.

You see, karma has nothing to do with material things.  It has nothing to do with your house, job, clothes, car, or what happens to you.

Karma has everything to do with the people that step up and pick you up in your darkest hours.

And in that....we are rich beyond measure.

SEA....Hawks!

I was going to write an article for Onhergame.com about the Seahawks game this week (especially since we played our rivals, the 49ers, and my favorite khaki-clad coach, Jim Harbaugh), but it's just not as much fun to make fun of them when they are no longer in playoff contention. 

So on that note, I decided to answer a more personal question... a question I literally get asked at EVERY game.  Why (as a woman) do I enjoy football games so much? And where the heck are the boys in my family?

You see, every woman has stress in her life, especially us working moms with super busy kids.  And every so often, (i.e. every other Sunday or so), you deserve a break.  You deserve a break from life, and laundry, and responsibility.  While my sister would call these days "mountain climbing day", I call them "Seahawks Sunday". 

It took me a long time to realize this, but my two boys are not traumatized for life if I spend a few hours a week away from them.  In fact, they enjoy their own time.

And as for me, I get a day to forget about life....to forget I have a sick mom, a stressful job, and way too much Xmas shopping left to do. :)

I get a day to scream at the top of my lungs, and people actually encourage it.

So ladies, give yourself a break every once in a while.  And if you're a football fan like me, I'd recommend picking a good team (let's face it, we all look good in blue and green).

# GoHawks 

The Shift

This blog is meant to be funny and entertaining, with a dash of witty sarcasm. I know that most of my posts will be exactly that.

However, that being said, it's also a way for me to tell my personal story.  In some selfish way, I hope it helps somebody out there...

This past summer, I hit a low point in my life. My mom was sick, and my brother had life-saving surgery (in fact, as they were wheeling my brother into surgery, I asked the surgeon to wait for my mom and sister, who were at a clinic across the street getting my mom's cancer-filled lung drained).  His stern response was, "your brother needs surgery NOW.  I am waiting for no one".

In the exhaustive aftermath of all this stress, my knee-jerk reaction was to completely retreat.  I wanted to be by myself.  I asked my boys to quit sports for a while, and I decided to abandon the thing I love, the thing that gives me the most joy, and the thing that relieves the most stress.  I decided to stop writing.

Luckily, my boys have friends and coaches who are much wiser than me, and persuaded me to AT LEAST let them start the football season.

Payton, who had never really played the sport, met new friends and great coaches who mentored him all season. I saw a smile return to his face as he discovered a new-found confidence and showed me how "buff" (we can use this term loosely) he was getting from all the football conditioning.

Mason went back to football and had the best season of his life.  Not because they won the championship (although that helped), but because he had so much fun in the countless hours he got to hang out with a group of kids and coaches that he loves dearly.  When I gave a speech at their football banquet a few days ago, I got choked up when I thanked a particular coach who convinced me that taking football away from Mason during this difficult time would be a big mistake.

And as for me, in the month or two since I publicly declared I stopped writing, I've been asked to write for two different sites, got approached by an entrepreneur who wants me to help promote his new football app, and got invited to speak at the Shelton Rotary about my sports writing.

And then yesterday, in the strangest twist of all, I was notified that I was selected as the "12th Woman of the Week" by Star 101.5 and KOMO 4 News.  They want to do an interview with me to "share my story".

I guess what I'm trying to say.....is that you can't let yourself get so caught up in the sorrows and "what ifs" of life, that you decide to stop living yourself.  When I tried to walk down this lonely path, God (or my dad, or whatever force it was), gently turned my shoulders in the opposite direction.  

I hope when this happens to you, as it eventually does to all of us, that you will listen to the whispers of the universe, or feel the taps on your shoulder, before you (as I certainly would have), run yourself smack dab into the middle of a brick wall.

A New Endeavor

Most of you probably know me from my work as a Seattle sports writer on www.onhergame.com (covering the Seattle Seahawks).  While I love my work on that site, I wanted a forum to express my views (often in a humorous and cynical way) and observations on life as a crazed, busy, and stressed working mom.  A writing "selfie" if you will. 

For most of us, we entered the real world unprepared for the realities of life.  My high school PE teacher never taught me how to backwards toss a box of McNuggets on our way to football practice.  I must have been absent the day in biology class where they explained if the germs left from a baseball cup on a kitchen counter were actually harmful to human health.  And my yoga instructor has left out a very useful move....I like to call it the "ref".  It's basically a back bend over the driver's seat to break up the two boys punching each other in the back seat.  Does it relieve stress?  No.  But it is pretty good at stretching the lower lumbar.

So for those of you who feel like you are trying, and failing miserably, at being a super mom, wife, employee, etc, I hope this blog will make you feel like we're all in the same boat....er minivan.  And don't fret if you're not doing everything right.  While I do the best to do everything for my family....the "mom of the year" prize van has yet to turn down my driveway either.

I promise that my stories on this blog will be a true (and sometimes exaggerated) recount of just how tough, and wonderful, life can be.

-Jenny