It’s #FiveMinuteFriday free write time! <—click to tweet this!
Where a flash mob of folks spend five minutes all writing on the same topic and then share ‘em over at Lisa Jo Baker's place.
So, set your timer, clear your head, for five minutes of free writing without worrying about getting it right.
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. (I did add some photos - one of a little Samuel and the others, later in their lives...and mine, in the final one.)
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..
OK, are you ready? Please give me your best five minutes on:
ENOUGH
It was a blazing hot June day. Samuel was about seven-weeks-old, Katherine was ten-years-old, Emma was three. We had spent the day before at my mother’s sixty ninth birthday party in Glendale, Arizona with the rest of our family. She waited until Samuel was old enough and then we made the trek.
It was actually fun. I was surprised since I never feel like enough (or anything positive) around my family.
We had to leave to return to California less than twenty-four hours later.
The other family members were all going to a baseball game together.
The four of us trudged into our little car and almost immediately we all started crying. We drove along in silence for a couple hours when little Emma declared she had to go to the bathroom.
If you know the Arizona desert, you will know the places to stop are few and far between.
It was midday and probably in the neighborhood of 110 degrees. There was a rest stop place with no food places but it had some vending machines. While Emma went to do her business, I decided to buy some candy bars to hold everyone over until we hit a normal stopping point.
I asked Katherine to hold Samuel and ran around putting my money into the machines, banging on them and moving to the next one. My plan was to go in one direction and then scoop up in the other direction.
Katherine, being ever so helpful, decided to pick up some of the food that had fallen and in doing so, she dropped baby Samuel on his face on the concrete.
She hates when I tell this story, but it is significant.
Emma came out of the bathroom and again, we were all crying. I said, “Come on everyone, we’re going to the car!”
In that moment we became an amorphous blob being with six walking feet, eight arms, eight eyes and four crying mouths. Samuel was doing the horrifying no sound cry. I slipped him into his car seat, fixed him a quick bottle, all the while crying and saying stuff like “I don’t deserve you, I don’t deserve you…”
I got the AC going, made sure everyone was belted in and we drove off, all sobbing.
All the way home I kept asking, “How is Samuel, how is Samuel?”
I stopped the car at every stop to check him in his backward facing car seat.
I also thought I should just drive to a police station and ask them to give me a lethal injection because these kids deserved a better mother.
My time is up and there is much more to say BUT the end result of this episode was – in those moments, we became a tightly knit family of four. We, the four of us, were completely enough in our unconventional full of love selves.
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Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She leads Writing Camp with JJS & this Summer will be traveling throughout the US to bring this unique, fun filled creative experience to the people wherever she finds the passion & the interest.
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