church

Easter bonnets, leather and lace

~ gracelessnessover40 ~ Leave a comment

Growing up Easter Sunday meant new outfits, going to church with the family followed by lunch and a big Easter egg hunt with a bunch of other kids and families. Easter bonnets and glovers with patent leather Mary Jane’s were the style back in the day.

As I aged, I didn’t always get a new outfit or go to church. I didn’t always make it to a good dinner and I definitely didn’t do too many egg hunts.

Once I became a parent a few things changed.

I don’t have a huge income so I find something nice to wear if I don’t get myself something. The boy always gets new clothes.

I don’t like crowds but I sometimes go to church with the boy. The walls didn’t cave in when I went and most everyone was polite.

I seem to eat more good Sunday lunches like I did when I was a kid and I have gone to more egg hunts in the last 6 years than I did the previous 20!

This year my sister is home for one of those over the top southern holidays she had forgotten about how things may go down for Easter.

As she and I often do, we discuss our outfits for going out. She is much more fashionable than I am, with her planning my outfits because I don’t care as much as I probably should!

I was laughing so hard when I said we were going to church, and because we were texting and I just throw out my thoughts without filtering, I wrote, “Just wear a bonnet, leather and lace to church”! I know she knew what I meant, however I could not stop laughing at myself.

The “if I died and someone read this they would think I was off my rocker for sure” thoughts ran through my mind over and over. *note to self, clean out texts!

We plan to go to church, eat with family, go eat with more family and I am sure we will be egg hunting as we have the boy! I am very sure that no matter what happens, we will be laughing and having a fabulous time. It’s what we do.

I hope you all have a fabulously wonderful Easter Sunday!  

 

 

 

Please, tell me how I should “feel”

~ gracelessnessover40 ~ Leave a comment

As everyone is aware, or at least the majority of folks, there is a lot going on in the world today.

Here in the good old USA, we have so much happening and watching the news can be depressing.

Recently, with the latest shooting, I was watching the newscast with a friend and we were discussing how horrible it was, wondering if the boy was mentally ill or a young man who got caught up in hate and “lost it”.

Several news reporters used the phrase, “We are trying to report how you should feel” regarding the shootings.

Really.

You want to tell me, and millions of viewers, how to feel about this situation?

Do you know me and my friends? Do you know all of those millions you try to delude?

I know that my friends and I have had varying feelings from shock, to anger, to disgust and just shaking our heads that yet another mass shooting had occurred by one of our own on American soil.

I have been stewing on this one for almost a week now, reading different opinions and reports.

Reading all that I can regarding this barely legal young man and, in my opinion, not only the hate crime that he committed but the domestic terrorism as well.

I have not seen where he has been charged with domestic terrorism.

To me that is odd because that is what he did.

He terrorized innocent people on American soil.

At a historic church no less and at a Bible study.

True peaceful human beings.

He sat with them for “close” to an hour, accounts vary on time but all say nearly an hour or more, then pulled out his gun and shot them. Reloaded and kept shooting.

Calculated, cold blooded murder.

I cannot imagine those in that room how they felt.

The terror. The confusion. The shock.

To be in a place of peace and be gunned down like an animal has got to be one of the worst feelings.

I know I cannot imagine nor would I disrespect those who have gone through this tragedy by trying to do so.

Losing you loved ones in front of you and having to play dead.

Thinking your loved one was just going to bible study and will be coming back home and they never make it.

I cannot fathom that kind of pain.

So to be told by the media that they were “working to report how we should feel in the wake of this shooting” is callous and disrespectful of the victims and their families.

It is disrespectful to the viewers.

Everyone reacts differently to situations.

Being told “how to feel” makes me feel very Orwellian.

And a bit creepy.

For me, my heart and prayers go out to the victims, their families and everyone dealing with this situation.

Also to the shooter’s family.

Again I can’t imagine it.

As to how I feel, I feel like I wish I could take away this pain, this hate, this obsession people have with harming others.

I don’t need the media to dissect my feeling or tell me how I should feel.

Believe me I feel.

Have a fabulous Tuesday my graceless friends!