Storminess

My Mom was a teacher for twenty years. I remember coming home in the late afternoon to find her sitting in the chair by the fireplace without any lights on. The only light the waning afternoon color. In Idaho, in the winter that happens early, around 4:00 pm. I would ask her why she was sitting in the dark and she would say something about the quiet. This usually was on a day that a storm was raging or on its way. In Idaho, this is a lot!

Mom always said that the kids at school were always really hyper, "bouncing off the walls" when there was a storm. I laughed at her, that's what teenagers do to their mothers. Then I got older. I started to work in classrooms doing my education. I started to ask other educators their opinions about the subject. Almost exclusively they would agree, children are wound up when a storm is coming or raging.

Fast forward another almost twenty years. I have been on another experiment. Life. Mine. I started to notice the storms. I started to notice how my own children acted when a storm was was on its way. I also started to notice how I felt. I do not bounce off the walls. I am not hyper. So I started to watch other adults. Noticing their behaviors and attitudes.

I have come to the conclusion that I am not entirely crazy! Storms make me tired. Storms make me emotional. Storms make me slow. Storms make me want to crawl into my bed and pretend that I am not the Momma and I don't have fifteen loads of laundry and dirty toilets. Storms make me cry in yoga. Storms are a struggle for me, especially since I live in Utah---winter capital.

So, today, to combat the storminess that I feel, I put a pretty piece of tulle in my hair and am going to lunch with a friend.