Peggy Chambers "Views from the Hammock" site

   I had a milestone birthday yesterday – something VERY new (or old). My wonderful husband and kids had a reception at the house after we had lunch together.  I had no idea I had so many friends and I don’t know how to thank them enough.

Right after the birthday this week is Valentine’s Day.  It isn’t new – we celebrate it every year.  It’s all about chocolate – or is it love?  I can’t remember.  Anyway, they’re the same thing, aren’t they?  Just another excuse for a calorie loaded holiday or maybe a candlelight dinner for two with your sweetie.

There was one Valentine’s Day, however, where the term “new” took on a completely different meaning.  The best Valentine I was ever given came a few days after.  I was twenty years old – too old to play with dolls and much too young to be a mother.  But, nine days after cupid arrived, my first child came into the world.  She was a delicate pink rosebud with skin as soft as the petals of a rose.

I was scared, clueless, and sick for nine months.  My body rebelled at the idea of another life inside of me.  I even had morning sickness the day she was born. The house was cold and drafty and there was no money for extravagances but, we were a family.

I was totally unprepared to be a parent but even more unprepared for the love I was about to receive.  She was our world.  Ah the dreams of a first-time mother.  She was a tiny unwritten life just waiting to be molded.  She was perfect.  Life would be perfect.

Then reality set in quickly with projectile vomiting, disgusting diapers and late night feedings.  I had no idea nursing could be so painful sometimes.  And then she learned to smile and coo and the messy diapers were forgotten.

Love comes in many forms.  The love you feel for your boyfriend who becomes your husband is different than the love you feel for your children or your parents.  Love makes you put up with things from your children that you would never put up with from anyone else – not even their dad.   Even nasty diapers could be tollerable – if the child was mine.  Someone else’s child was another story.

Life goes along, messes are cleaned, and love evolves into something much deeper. Reality.  When the second child – who is loved just as much – comes along it is treated differently than the first.  You just don’t have the time to gaze at its tiny fingers and make plans for its new and perfect life. It has to fend for itself a little.

My second child came along four years later in the heat of summer.  Now there would be two; a pink rose of spring, and a hot firecracker of summer.  Both very different but no less loved.  They are and always will be the two loves of my life.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you and your loves.

LUCKY THIRTEEN – FIFTY-TWO NEW THINGS TO DO IN 2013, NO. 5.

      I called it the Mother Earth Tree.  Its gnarled branches reached to the heavens while its roots grounded in the earth.  Its ancient wisdom remained hidden beneath its bark.  What had it seen in the more than one hundred years since it was a seedling?  How many creatures had it housed near the banks of the Cimarron River?

My husband left me in the pickup with the dog.  He was meeting a friend at the Cimarron River near Langston this week to discuss and upcoming trip.  While admiring the Oklahoma landscape, I put my little “city dog” on her leash and we walked the cow pasture.  There in the cow path was an especially old and beautiful tree. Walking around it, I began to image all that it had seen in its long life.

I wondered how old the tree was – its branches almost touched the ground and its roots ran deep to the water table below.  The ground was sugar sand in many places in the Cimarron valley.  A place known for droughts and floods – but still the tree had survived for probably close to a century.

I began to think that tree was no different than most women I know – strong, protecting and long lasting.  Our bodies become gnarled with age but we remain steadfast and enduring as we protect those we love, leaving ourselves last.  We reach to the heavens for help as we resolutely cling to the earth, our roots running deep for nourishment, all the while offering shelter to those who need it.

The beautiful tree was not new.  But, it accentuated the idea of finding something new for me.  Each spring that tree is renewed with leaves and branches.  If it withers others will wither with it.  It must remain strong and continue its renewal for itself and those it shelters.

We could take a lesson from the tree.  What can you do this week to renew your body, mind or spirit? How can you thrive and protect those you love as you continue in your quest for a full life for yourself? Let me know your thoughts.

TAG YOU’RE IT.

LUCKY THIRTEEN: FIFTY-TWO NEW THINGS TO DO IN 2013 – NO. 3.

LUCKY THIRTEEN: NEW THINGS TO DO IN 2013 – NO. 2.

  New Year’s resolutions are over-rated.  I decided years ago not to make promises I couldn’t keep.  However, this year in 2013, in celebration of a mile-stone birthday, I plan to find something new every week for fifty-two weeks – something I’ve never done before, or old things done in a new way. And I’ll be telling you all about it in my weekly blogs. I challenge you to do the same.

I’ve worked-out at the YMCA twice a week for years in what was once called Pilates and now called Core Strength classes.  The classes are good for an old back with a couple of surgeries.  They strengthen my back and core so the muscles can hold up the fused vertebrae.  However, after this length of time, they are no longer aerobic and don’t get my heart rate up very high.  But, they are great strengthening exercises.

However, on Saturday morning at the local Y, they have Zumba classes that are free to members.  What? You can’t teach old dogs new tricks you say?  Hah! I retort.  We’ll see.  My plan for this week is Zumba class.  I never could dance but I do like Salsa music.  I know I will be the old lady at the back of the class trying not to pass out (that is so embarrassing in public) along with all the other New Year’s resolution types.  But, I’m going to try the class on Saturday – one new thing down and fifty-one to go.  I’ll let you know how it went after I have time to catch my breath.

Have you participated in Zumba classes?  How did it work for you?  Did you pass out?