Secret Slumber Party

There is a single night from my childhood that defined motherhood for me, at least motherhood done well.  This moment encapsulated the wisdom, power, grace, and love that children long to see in their mothers, and that I believe mothers hope to have.

When Sarah Met Clyve, Part 1

Not so terribly long ago, perhaps a couple of years, during the time that Sarah’s public history would place her in law school, she was working in our nation’s capital as a checkout clerk at a Mexican grocery store. She’d always loved going to the grocery store and took a peculiar pleasure in using self-checkout lanes so that she could experience the whole ordeal in Spanish. So, this had seemed like the logical next step in terms of doing what she loved.

Each day as she lovingly traveled to her tienda, she thought of what unusual root vegetables might arrive that day or what exotic supernatural trinkets the impulse buys at her checkout lane might include. And each day she passed a variety of panhandlers and other “street folk” (as she fondly thought of them.)

The Real Story

Some would have you believe that we met during the pursuit of noble things such as learning, art, or justice. While this is certainly a tidy fiction, a pretty façade on our partnership, the real story has merit of its own. And I believe you are ready for the truer, darker tale that lies at the foundation of our friendship.

Commencement

Once upon a time, there were two little girls whose whimsy levels were well above average. Their respective parents thought them quite bright and planned nice, sensible, stable futures for them, urging them towards nice, sensible, stable career paths. Ultimately, the whimsical little girls became studious and hardworking young women who were scared senseless by the very thought of a future based on doing something they enjoyed. They found themselves in law school, and that seemed to be the end of that.

The once-whimsical young ladies completed law school and immediately began making choices based on fear. Fear of financial insecurity, fear of what was next, and fear of autonomy. One took a job at a large firm with demanding hours and no whimsy whatsoever, while the other began scrambling to pull some kind of respectable adult life together while awaiting the birth of her first child.

A couple of years passed more or less like this—merely existing from one anxiety-ridden decision to the next—until the friends decided to finally take control of their lives and start doing something they loved.

Telling stories.