Katy McKenna Raymond  
Personal blog of christian writer Katy McKenna Raymond in Kansas City, Missouri

Personal blog of christian
writer & fallible mom
Katy McKenna Raymond
in Kansas City, Missouri


Katy is represented by
Greg Johnson at
WordServe Literary

Read more Katy at
LateBoomer.net

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The Stories of Our Lives

I've come to the conclusion that few of us--if any--ever fully believe in the strength of our own stories.

My mother is a prime example. The woman is a natural born story teller. Her best ones, aged with the valued patina of exaggeration and hear-say, might become altered in small points with the episodic retellings. But the comedic timing remains flawless and the punchlines never change.

She can tell a story that has a roomful of progeny howling and after she's got us where she wants us, she puts on this innocent expression and says, "What? Was that funny?"

Does she truly not realize how hilarious she can be? Or is this schtick her leg-puller of a lifetime?

All I know is, yesterday she nailed me.

I spent a couple hours at her place, filling her next month's worth of pill containers. She takes 17 different medications, some of them three times per day. She's got four containers, each with seven days, each with four compartments per day. So, yeah. It actually takes two hours to complete this task.

It requires some concentration on my part to do it accurately, and even though Mom knows I need to pay attention lest I cause her some horrible pharmaceutical mishap, she doesn't stop telling stories the whole time I'm working. To be fair, I guess I get a couple tales in sideways, too, but I only do it for her, to give her a chance to catch her breath.

At the end of my visit, as I gathered up all the empty pill bottles and got ready to leave, Mom couldn't resist recapping our stories and though I certainly wasn't expecting it, she gave one of mine the BOD (Best of Day).

"You know that one about how Terri's such a wonderful friend that she'd give you the pants right off her behind?" (See my last entry.)

"Yeah," I said.

"That's a blog."

I hadn't thought of my public bathroom story as a blog until Mom pointed it out, just like she doesn't know she's funny until she hears our laughter. It made me think how much we need to learn to trust our own stories, to understand that this is our material, the stuff of which our lives are made. When will we learn to use it?

Mom will be 75 next week, and I'm wondering if maybe she was born before her time. All I know is, she would have made some blogger.
Posted by Katy on 04/07/05 at 09:14 AM
Fallible Comments...
  1. Your mother sounds amazing.
    -----
    Posted by Crystal  on  04/07/05  at  10:44 PM
  2. If only Crystal knew...lol :)
    Posted by Bridget  on  04/08/05  at  12:51 AM
  3. I love how you honor your mother in print. It's very lovely.
    Posted by relevantgirl  on  04/09/05  at  09:39 AM
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