Facebook is a Wonderful Thing – Most of the Time

Facebook is a wonderful thing – most of the time. Yesterday a friend posted a link that got me thinking. That can be good – or bad.

The Facebook posting friend and I were in choir throughout junior high and most of high school. We went to choir hours before the other students, spent our lunch breaks in the choir room and stayed after school to practice. We were a tight group of singing friends.

But my junior year, I switched from choir to drill team and my friend group switched along with my activities. After graduation, I moved across the country to attend college and many of us lost contact with each other. We didn’t mean to lose contact but those were the years we were changing dorms every year, then we changed our last names as we married and we moved towns, cities and states as our careers (or the careers of our husband’s) blossomed.

I know it is unfathomable for the young whippersnappers of today to grasp the concept of having to change our phone numbers with each of the moves. And without e-mail, we lost track of address changes. Snail mail was often delivered to my mailbox those first ten years after high school graduation with “return to sender, address unknown” stamped across the front of the envelope.

So last night when my former choir friend posted a video of our famous choir friend singing on stage for a large crowd, it brought back a sweet memory.

Late one night, I was sitting on the floor folding lots and lots of laundry for my two little girls and my husband, as usual, was out of town. I was taken off-guard when the Tonight Show host said, “Next up, we have Curtis Stigers,” before cutting to commercial break.

Curtis Stigers? My choir friend, Curtis Stigers? I put down the laundry and moved closer to the TV – waiting for the commercial to be over. Waiting to see my famous choir friend.

 There he was! My choir friend! Singing and playing his saxophone on THE Tonight Show! Wow!

While I was in college, he was playing in clubs and venues around town. Then he went to New York City. And now he was on a national stage. Singing!

And I was folding laundry on my living room floor. 

There was a time I dreamed of being a famous singer. I spent hours and hours in my bedroom trying to sound like Olivia Newton-John. She was my idol. I was a member of her fan club and had her signed autographed picture on the back of my bedroom door – along with my Sylvester Stallone and Starsky and Hutch posters.

I dreamed. Curtis did. (And he had the talent to back it up. Me, not so much.)

What did I do while Curtis was following his dreams and becoming famous doing the thing he loved?

At the time I sat on the living room floor of my little house trying to tame the laundry monster, I didn’t think I had done or was doing much. I gave up my career. My husband’s job moved us when I was five months pregnant and again when our firstborn was six months. Finding a job would have been hard during that time. And I wanted to be home with my girls.

Twenty-five years later, some could make the argument that I still haven’t done much. I didn’t help pad the retirement fund (yet) and I don’t have an amazing resume with a long list of my career accomplishments.

If I look at Fakebook, eh em, Facebook, the list of my failures and short-comings grows.

But I did do something I am very proud of. I supported (and continue to support) my husband’s career by shouldering the burden at home so he can go, travel and be amazing at what he does. I have raised three girls that are doing amazing things for the Lord. I hope I have been a good friend, daughter, granddaughter, sister, mother and, now, grandmother. If I have made the world a better place for one person, I’m good with that.

So moms, don’t compare. Some of you are called to work to help your family. Some of you are called to be home to help your family. What an amazing time we live in that we even have that choice. We can go to work. We can stay at home. We can even work from home.

I’d still like to be a famous singer…

But for now, I’ll settle for being an author. Yeah, I did that. I wrote and published a book. Maybe I’ll sing a song about it. Maybe not.

And whatever you do, do it heartily,

as to the Lord and not to men.  Colossians 3:23

 

 

Pushing to the Peak is available at your favorite bookstore or through Amazon. Want to know more about the book? Check out this video.