Day 6, Monday: If you couldn’t answer with your job, how would you answer the question, ‘what do you do’?

Last month when we were in Florida, we took a day-long tour of the Everglades.  Shortly after we got into the van with our six fellow-vacationers, our guide (a fun and enthusiastic Floridian by the name of Rick) asked us to go around and introduce ourselves to the group.  Mike and I were sitting in the very back seat, so I was the last to go.  As I listened to everyone pretty much give their resumes, I wondered what I would say.  They were all talking about jobs, and I hadn’t worked for an outside job in over 16 years.  Even when I did, I was never really defined by it.  It wouldn’t have occurred to me to mention it when I introduced myself, even back them.  So what would I tell them?  I would tell them I was a mom, of course, and maybe even that I taught yoga – mainly because it’s still relatively new, I worked hard for it, and it still gives me a little thrill to say it out loud.  I like to think of myself as a writer, but I wouldn’t tell them that.

Mom and yoga teacher.  That would be fine.

And it was.  They all appreciated that I was a mom, especially when I said that we had four kids, and that we homeschooled. The yoga was a hit too, as it launched Rick into a funny story about how he took a yoga class to impress a former girlfriend and that it hadn’t ended well.

But are any of those things what I do?

THIS is what I do:

I make mistakes, and I hope to learn from them.

I laugh, often at myself.

I cry, just as much happy as sad.

I make grand plans, and I dream big dreams.

I start things I never finish, and finish things I never imagined.

I sometimes struggle and sometimes soar and sometimes sink and sometimes swim.

I breathe, in and out.  I fall down, and I pick myself up.

I do real.

I do love.

I do LIFE.

Really, isn’t that what we all do?