Choppin' Onions...

Recently I took a poll on my Instastory asking if anyone was interested in reading a blog about grandparenting in the 21st century.

Surprisingly...at least to me...the (77% Yes) response I received came from younger women. They were clearly the ages of my daughters and daughter-in-laws.

It made me think. What are they interested in? What could I possibly offer them that they need as young wives and mothers of the 21st century?

What I remember wanting as a young wife and mom in the ebbing 20th century was relevancy and reliability. I wanted honesty and I needed to be told I was doing something right...something...anything. I knew what I was lacking. I didn't need reminders of that. I wanted someone to tell me I wasn't failing my kids. I wanted a reassuring voice to tell me that just being there for them at night and morning was...somehow...enough...especially on the nights I failed.

How different life is today. I am now an age where I see the wisdom the older generation was trying to pass on to me and I see the hopeful optimism the younger generation has while raising a new generation. I also lost my grandmother the second day of this new year 2019. She was my last living grandparent and part of my childhood is now gone.

I'm hanging on to what I can pass down to my grandchildren. All I have are memories and the mysteries of our family's faith. Mysteries of life are all we can pass. It's all we truly have and all that is truly necessary.

Perhaps we could do it together while chopping onions for supper and drinking coffee at the kitchen table? It's a place where grandmothers and mothers and daughters have gathered and done these very things together for many cycles. There was insight and wisdom that most of us didn't take advantage of or gather up completely. Perhaps here we can preserve a little bit of that mystery that blessed us all even when we didn't realize it was blessing us.

This is why I'm changing the blog title from Cajun Cottage to Choppin' Onions (Chopping Onions was taken so I had to change it a tad). Choppin' onions has such staying power in a kitchen. Choppin' onions is something we do weekly in our homes. We've all had experience with onions. Onions sting. We have all probably smelt onions on our grandma's hands. Onions produces tears. And, yes, onions stink too...much like difficult times in our lives. But they also add spice to our lives.  And, like all of us, onions have layers. 

Hopefully through this blog we can un-layer ourselves and our relationships with the women who have gone before us and the women we are raising.

There is definitely a place for all of us at life's table.

Join me?

Shrek: Ogres are like onions.
Donkey: They stink?
Shrek: Yes. No.
Donkey: Oh, they make you cry.
Shrek: No.
Donkey: Oh, you leave em out in the sun, they get all brown, start sproutin’ little white hairs.
Shrek: No. Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.
Donkey: Oh, you both have layers. Oh. You know, not everybody like onions.