Last Friday, I embarked on Operation Reorganization 2.0 and man, did I get a lot done. After several straight years of being pregnant (and feeling awful), nursing babies (and feeling awful) or having the world’s neediest toddler perpetually clinging to my legs and screeching (which I never did get used to) (but I love you more than life, baby!), we are finally to a place where I can get some projects done while my husband entertains the boys. And after several years of neglect, there is a lot to get done.
I used to think things like: “What if something (some vague, spy movie-ish thing) happens, and all the computers in the world go on the fritz, and I have to prove Dan and I have been married for all this time?” So I kept everything. When some friends helped us with Operation Reorganization 1.0, a few months ago, I got rid of stacks of utility bills and phone statements and other papers from the 1990’s.
This time around I was tackling clothing, and I was ruthless. I emptied a large dresser full of our “sports clothes” (including season after season of my husband’s softball gear), and “yard clothes” – stained and holey t-shirts in various sizes, droopy shorts, and those cotton sweatpants with elastic at the ankles that no one should wear outside the confines of their own property (and I know several people who would end that last statement before the prepositional phrase.)
My husband has a nostalgic attachment to things he’s worn, or even things he’s never worn if they remind him of a certain point in his life. So I made stacks on the floor, then called him in, bracing for protests and negotiations. “You can keep two pairs of shorts from that pile,” I said, pointing, “and two shirts from that pile.” And so on.
Right away, he pointed to a 15-year-old cotton t-shirt bearing the logo of a Danish freight forwarder and said, “But I don’t think they’re in business anymore! That’s a collector’s item!” Still, I managed to talk him out of a bunch of old softball jerseys, some paint-stained shorts, and swim trunks whose drawstrings no longer draw.
After adding some of my own things, I stuffed two big garbage bags full of clothes, and put them in the trunk of the car.
I didn’t mention that there were still some old, outdated items in our closet I couldn’t bring myself to discard.
Ah, but they’re so pretty and expensive, my suits! Pants and skirts and jackets, in every color of a (fairly conservative) rainbow, every length and kind. Things I bought in my twenties, things I wore to meetings, or to church when we lived in the Deep South.
Everything a businesswoman might need. Everything in a size six.
I have a four year old and a two year old – do I need to say that I no longer wear a size six? Even if I lose every ounce of the baby weight (which is frankly not high on my to-do list, these days), I will probably never wear a size six again. I’m very tall and, well, things have shifted.
Furthermore, people have stopped sending me plane tickets and requesting my presence at business meetings. And here in the West, people wear jeans and flip-flops to church. For the last five years, I have had absolutely no use for dress-up clothes. I sometimes spend entire days in pajama bottoms and t-shirts.
And I wouldn’t trade it for the world; while being home with my boys is the exact opposite of a luxury (and please, please don’t ever refer to it as a luxury, or there’ll just be all kinds of ugly), it is the greatest privilege of my life. My heart would crack right in two if I couldn’t be with my babies.
But I still haven’t been able to get rid of those freaking suits. They’re taking up valuable real estate in my tiny closet, collecting fine layers of dust along the shoulders.
I cannot seem to quite let go of that other person, the one with the vibrant career and the healthy paycheck and the flat abs and the thin arms. I am like the middle-aged spinster left at the altar decades ago, perpetually stroking her yellowed wedding dress and sighing, “Oh, you should have seen me.”
Maybe I need an intervention.
Or maybe I just need to talk myself through all of this.
I mean, it’s understandable. I was a certain person for over thirty-five years, and now I am another. That other person, the former me, was doing well. Her workdays were certainly shorter, and easier, and far more lucrative. She had time on her hands. She got to dress up, and on good days, people sometimes said she was pretty.
But I just remembered something. About seven years ago, a family member asked me if we were ever going to have kids. This was right around the time when I was having a bunch of miscarriages. And I said, “I don’t know. I’m fine either way” (and I really was; I loved my job, and I was never one of those girls who was just dying to have a baby), but after a pause I said, “But when I look ten years down the road, and I think about my life then being exactly the same as it is now, it makes me want to scream.”
I hadn’t realized that truth until the words left my mouth. I could not even have said why it was the truth – but it was.
The thing about life is, you move. On and on and on. You want to. You have to.
Here’s where I am, now: this new version of me is experiencing the bond between a mother and a child, for the first time. It is wonderful and shattering, and holy and visceral, and it takes more than everything I’ve got, and somehow it is all working out, even as it blows me to pieces (but in a good way.)
And I have begun to write. Here at the mid-point of my journey, I have stumbled upon the second half of my reading passion, and it’s like finding the last little piece of the puzzle, like finally hearing the tumbler click inside the lock. It makes me feel like I can fly.
So I’m just about ready to deal with all those suits. I’ll pile them into bags, and as I set them loose I’ll feel my fingertips slip from a gate; I’ll hear it bang shut on that particular path. A path that was true, and fine, but which no longer bears my name.
My new path is unfolding as we speak, and the thought of it ten years from now, or thirty years from now, does not make me want to scream; it makes me want to dance. There are so many adventures still to come, so many miles to go, and I have two small princes to care for, whose dragons I can still slay, for now. And after that – who knows?
I’d better pack light.
Cathy LaGrow 
In the past 14 years I’ve managed to write six books and get four of them published. I’ve been on every major news outlet show in the nation, and have had my commentary published in all the top newspapers in the nation. I know fabulous writers by name and personal email contact. I’ve spoken at the Library of Congress and before thousands at the Mall in DC. Yet, none, none of that compares to having raised four children who love God with their whole hearts, mind and soul — or at least, like their daddy and me, try to.
Being a mom is the most completely exhausting and completely satisfying work I have ever done. Most of the happiest days of my life have been spent in the presence of my children.
Great post, girl.
Give up those suits.
Aw, thanks. You know how when you know something…it’s still nice to hear all kinds of confirmation? So thanks for that. 🙂
And yes…most exhausting…most satisfying.
Infinitely better place now. Unmeasurably better.
Plus, you would have never gotten to blog if you were still mashing the world to death.
Thank Ya, Jesus!
“Mashing the world to death”…I so adore what you do with words. 🙂
Beautifully said Cathy! I am just starting to feel like I’m finding who I am as a Mommy in addition to everything else. Not quite there yet, but working on it.
And you are BEAUTIFUL….never forget that!
Tiff
Well, judging by your pictures, you just get prettier and prettier as the years go by!
Yes, it takes a while (or at least it has for me) to settle into all of this.
Love you!
I followed Tiffany over here from Facebook and I quite enjoyed your story! As an almost 30 year old expecting her first child (after lots of trying) I am excited for the new stage of my life but I did find myself holding on to a few things from my previous life that I’m pretty sure will never again see the light of day (at least not on this body). And I think that is just fine (even if my hub doesn’t really understand…) 🙂
I did want to make one suggestion to you– as I have been cleaning up and getting rid of things to make room for baby, I found an organization that offers business clothes to homeless or low income women who would never have a way to get items like that otherwise. I have given them bags of things (and even non business clothes go to their shelter/thrift store) and I feel much better about getting rid of things I love now that I know they are going to a good cause! The place near where I live is called Shepherds Door, but I’m sure a few minutes online could find one close to you. Some even offer free pick-up or shipping.
Good luck and good job moving on to the new & improved you! 🙂
Thanks so much for coming by and Oh. My. Word. I love your idea! I know some friends who are in ministry in downtown, so I’m ON this.
Nice to meet you!
Great post, Kathy! I love your complete candidness about your transition from career woman to motherhood. Your writing comes across so real…
Thank you, sweet Mama! Can’t wait to meet your precious boy! (Bet you can’t wait, either.) 🙂
Another wonderful post. Love the way your writing flows along, that’s a special talent m’dear. I see a published book of essays in your future, I really do. Get an agent! Give away those awful sounding suits – boring blah!! My own daughter is newly finding the joys of motherhood even more rewarding than she first thought. Though she still works full time, she is loving being a mom. What could be better? 🙂
Nothing better. Nothing harder, but nothing better!
Thanks for the kudos; they mean so much. And I love your attitude about the suits. 🙂 Kiss that grandbaby for me…
If you haven’t yet managed to unload those suits, I would be happy to be your intervention….cuz honey, I love ya, but just as life changes for all of us, and so does the fashion world…. And you know, that I know what I’m talking about. 🙂
Oh yes, you and my brother are my fashion police!
Julia (above) had an excellent suggestion…I think that’s what I’ll do.
Awesome post, Cathy! You put the thought of transitions and focusing on ‘where am I going’ vs. ‘what I am I doing now’ in great perspective, which is helpful to me at the moment……
I think it would serve me (and others) well to use that one statement of yours and fill in the blank: “when I look ten years down the road, and I think about my life then being exactly the same as it is now, it makes me want to ____________”
If the answer leans more towards “scream” than “dance”, some changes are in order!
Thanks so much for your support…I will never forget that you and Perk started all of this. 🙂
I hadn’t thought about your 2nd paragraph, but I think you’re right…
Let’s discuss the suits. Donate them to Dress for Success. Amazing organization – they give women clothes but also a full makeover, coaching & even have their own employment agency.
Yes, that’s what I’m thinking about doing. Same type of thing as Julia suggested, above?
I felt like I just skated through that post with you. Before I knew it, you were finished and I wanted to read more. That’s a good thing.
Hey, maybe I can get a secret recording of you and send the tape to Stacey & Clinton. It would be fun to see you made over. Just because you’re not the same person, doesn’t mean you can’t ever dress up! 🙂 P.S. Don’t ask me how I know about Stacey & Clinton.
That is hiLARious, T!! I used to watch that show, back when we had cable.
But please…if they ever showed up on one of my pajamas and no-makeup days, I’d be mortified. I’m not sure if that would be worth the free clothes!!
Hey Cathy, thanks for commenting on my blog! I skipped most of the fashions you mentioned, but I still have a pair of good old Vans. 🙂 Hope your new year takes you on lots of unexpected and amazing detours! See you around.
Aw, thanks for stopping by, man!
I never did have Vans…we were kinda poor. My brothers and I had one maroon Izod shirt we passed around…that’s just terrible. Just remembered it.