What Am I Doing Here?

On Easter Sundays, my whole family went to Mass together. First my older sister filed in, then my dad, my three older brothers, and then my mother–who held my baby brother. I got the end, closest to the aisle. I also got the Pinch in the armpit when I misbehaved. The Pinch was accompanied by my mother’s thick Boston accent in my ear, “Knack it off, or you’ll get a licken in front of God and Everybody.” I knew what a licken was but I’d never had one.  Still, I was pretty sure it would hurt–which didn’t bother me so much as the idea that to get a licken meant my bum would be exposed in church, during Mass, in front of Everybody–including God.

I quickly learned that baring oneself involved a bit of shame. So, what am I doing here, blogging and baring myself in thought and word in such a permanent way? And why now?

Perhaps, I am here now because I recently turned 50 and am much less inhibited. Yet the truth is, I choose to bare myself before God and Everybody because I realize that we are all on the same journey travelling different paths but for the one moment when you read something that I write and it touches your spirit, and I read something you write that enhances my own.

What I’m doing here is seeking out and sharing nourishment for the pilgrimage—because it isn’t easy and it is rarely pretty.

~Sheila LaSalle