Six Word Saturday (9/7/13)

Five Wishes and The General's Daughter

It feels like my therapist is reading my blog because Wednesday he gave me an assignment to remove my "filter" (he thinks I don't pay attention to people's compliments of me) and observe how many times people do say I'm a good mom.  Weird, huh?  So hi Mark if you read this today.

Five Wishes by Gay Hendricks

My sister had been recommending this book to me for quite some time and I finally ordered it and finished reading it.  Basically, this man tells a story of going to a party and having some guy ask him to imagine the end of his life on his deathbed and answer the question "Did you have a successful life?"  Then the author goes through his own personal five answers ("My life was successful because/my life wasn't successful because ...") and shows how he turned the answers into positive workable goals, so that when he really does lay on his deathbed, he can answer yes to that question.  There was a worksheet where you can plot your own deathbed answers.  Here are mine:

My life was not a success because ...

1.  I didn't make my own decisions.

2.  I didn't have a job all the time that I loved.

3.  I didn't live somewhere comfortable and healthy for me.

4.  I didn't invest much time in my family (husband and kids).

5.  I didn't act friendly to everyone even if they weren't my friend.

(My action plan)  My life is now a success because ...

1.  I make decisions even if people hate me for it.

2.  I'm typing things for fun while waiting for my dream job to come along.

3.  I'm careful to keep my body comfortable no matter the weather conditions.

4.  I'm slowly and consistently finding things to do with/for my kids and husband to show love.

5.  I am friendly to everyone I see.

The General's Daughter

My sister let me stream this movie Wednesday afternoon.  It's from 1999 and has John Travolta in it.  He plays an investigator of the murder of an army general's daughter (hence the title).  There are flashback scenes and interviews with different people in her life (specifically her psychiatrist).  ****spoiler**** The psychiatrist mentioned that she told him her father visited her in the hospital after the first brutal rape.  It showed a flashback of the scene.  Her father bent over her and whispered, "It [the rape] ... never ... happened."  He knew if it got out that his daughter was raped at West Point then the controversy would probably cost him any promotions.

How sick is that?

And, of course, it triggered me greatly.  My parents and sister have never talked about my abortion, and I've felt all along that they go on with their lives like nothing ever happened.

Anyway, John Travolta's character solves the murder and you surmise the general pretty much gets to go on with his life worry-free as if his daughter didn't even exist.  ****end spoiler****

To end this for this week, I'm a good mother because ...

*  I made a promise to my daughter on Tuesday to take her to the gas station to get a Slushee and Wednesday I did it.

*  Thursday one of my dogs was really sick and I took care of/cleaned up after her.  (I know that I'm not a dog's mother but I'm still counting it.)

*  Thursday I gave the kids a little surprise (a glass of Cherry Coke) for eating dinner at the table with me.