Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Carpe Diem

Gerry and I have been down on the farm visiting with one of our good friends from college. A few weeks ago he called to say that his mom had been coming back to her farm in Siler City from a trip into Chapel Hill and someone crossed the center line, hit her head on and killed her. Just like that. One day she is a vital woman running a 300 acre farm with cows and horses and the next day some careless driver takes her life from her. I just can't seem to get my head around this.
So now her son has inherited a farm with cows and horses and cats and dogs and acres and acres of land...... and there is so much to deal with. We went to see if we could help this week but it's too soon. There are books, and photographs, and family antiques and furniture, dishes, letters, farm stuff, so much stuff, I just don't know where you begin to sort something like this out. It has me in such a funk, I can't think about art, or much of anything else, just how quickly your life can be taken away and how much stuff there is to deal with when you leave this Earth. Why do we have all this stuff??? My very wise daughter gave me some advise tonight as I sat in my funk, and I looked at her in wonder and tried to figure out where she came from. Here is her advise that I gladly pass on to you:
Mom, Transcend the Bullshit.............

12 comments:

Hollis Engley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hollis Engley said...

Smart daughter you have there, Tracey. I can see T-shirts saying "Transcend the Bullshit." Excellent advice.

cindy shake said...

So sorry to hear about your friend's mom :(
Great advice when it's hard for us to process the randomness of life and death.

Linda Starr said...

Life is too short for too many, sorry about your friend's mom. There's a lot of bullshit I'd like to transcend, but it keeps cropping back up in so many places.

ang design said...

oi keep it together trace...but what a shock mate!! big squish from me xx

cookingwithgas said...

I need that shirt- I have been trying to do this for months!
The mother part of me makes me want to help and ask those questions no one things about- but not here.
I am thinking of you and was wondering where you were.
Deep-deep breaths- big hugs and keep that daughter's wise words close.
If you need me I am an email away.

Tracey Broome said...

Hey guys thanks for your words, it's been an odd month.... hugs to all!!

andrea gardiner freeman said...

I believe these moments of clarity and funk are here to remind us how important each of us are and how utterly unimportant most our worries are. It brings us full circle to refocus and rejoice, in a way, about how beautiful moments can be and to say I love you more.

Sorry you are going through this and love that you have such a cool and astute daughter.

~andrea

Tracey Broome said...

Andrea you are so right. It also makes me want to clean my house so Wes won't have to deal with what my friend is dealing with!

Michèle Hastings said...

so sorry to hear of you and your friends loss. dealing with all the "stuff" afterwards is an emotional roller coaster. it's hard to help someone else through it... just being there for him and letting him know you will do whatever he needs is the best thing you can do.
sometimes life sucks.

Michèle Hastings said...

and you can buy "Transcending the Bullshit" t-shirts, maybe we can get a group discount :-)

Anonymous said...

hi tracey, i know exactly what you're talking about, it's event like that shock us out of our delusion that we will go on forever. the strange thing to me is that whenever it happens to me, it is so strong a feeling and it gradually fades away and is replaced by the same delusion it shocked me out of. wes is incredible, you've got a little buddha living with you. carpe diem indeed