Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Are you "Mom-opic"?

I first heard that coinage a few months ago while listening to a panel discussion comprising women who couldn't and women who didn't want to have children. It was interesting to hear their perspectives so I decided to expand on it based on my personal experiences.

Let's start by breaking down the word. "Mom-opic" is combination of 2 words...I expect you can make them out. Yes "Mom" an alternate word for "Mother" and "opic" from "Myopic" which means narrow-minded and lacking in intellectual insight - in other (my) words "poor-sighted." Melanie (I didn’t catch her last name) who coined this word said she came up with it after observing how myopic a lot of mothers are; too many mothers, intentionally and sometimes unintentionally, believe that women who don't have children (yet) don't know anything (or know nothing) about raising children. It is such a sadly myopic view because some of these women have raised or supported others to raise children - say, their younger siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, friends' children, foster children and the list could go on.

The other misconception, pun intended, is that Motherhood = Womanhood - nothing could be further than the truth. I'll delve into both "I-sight" issues with my insight, which some may say is too __________ - not sure how you'd describe it hence the blank space, so let's move on.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Grace to stay grateful

As this year's Thanksgiving Day was in the horizon,
I wanted to do something different & thought-provoking. So last Monday, I sent an email to some of my colleagues, including my boss, encouraging each person to write one thing they are thankful for each day so that by Friday, each person would have at least 5 things they are thankful for.
It was nice to read what others are thankful for - even some things we take for granted e.g. choices. There was a funny example of "one (wo)man's meat..."
- someone was thankful for the nice weather i.e. no snow yet and another person was thankful for Winter holidays.

I knew I'd be out of the office on Friday so I made sure I completed my list of 5. At the end of the day, I added the 6th one laid in my heart. Yes, you guessed right, it was:
I am thankful to God for
the grace to remain grateful/thankful... especially beyond Thanksgiving Day.
It was both a point of thanksgiving and a prayer as well. As you may know, it’s very easy to get caught up in life and not take the time to express our gratitude to God...which takes a decision and effort.  As a ladies, we're always encouraged to be graceful - and that takes some effort - at least for me it does. So I guess if there was one grace we all need, it's the grace to be grateful every day and everyway.
Author Edward Sandford Martin put this need to have grace to stay grateful aptly,  
“Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year;
to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.”
May we receive the grace and remain gracefully grateful...and move to ThanksLIVING.
Happy Thanksgiving Day!
Happy ThanksLIVING life!!

Stay put...not out

When this common quote: "Go where you're celebrated not tolerated" crossed my mind, the first 2 words in the title "resp...