This week's challenge was to capture a photo showing how we play well with others. The above photo was taken in August 2006. It is myself and my mother 'playing' on Venice Beach in California. I was travelling to LA for work and my mom wanted to tag along. This was the first trip to LA for both of us. We spent this particular day playing. We went to the Reagan Library - which is amazing, took a breathtakingly scenic drive from Simi Valley over to Pacific Coast Highway. We snapped this photo right after we had dipped our toes in the Pacific Ocean for the very first time. This was a great trip. I have not always had a great relationship with my mom, but on this trip, I came home feeling like we were friends more than we were parent/child.
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I have always felt like I play well with others, but I am also a loner of sorts. I have always had a lot of friends and I was popular in school and a sorority girl in college, but I realize that I have some characteristics that don't make me very easy to get along with sometimes. I am impatient. I am a perfectionist. I do not have much confidence it other's abilities. I take charge and take over. I want things done my way.
These issues affect every part of my life. My job. My friendships. My marriage. My family. I am trying to work on becoming the person who plays well with others, but it is a struggle.
stefanie, i could have written this post. i should have written this post. i should have written about how my perfectionism, my NEED to do things MY way, my tendency to switch into leader mode all isolate me, to a great extent. it's true, it effects every part of my life.
ReplyDeleteinstead, i wrote about how i don't have TIME to play. while this is true, i think i took the easy way out in my post. thanks so much for your open-ness!
i see some of myself in this post.(i too tend to "take over" many times) interesting post that i will think about today.
ReplyDeletei like that you started with the mother-daughter relationship turning to friendship.
Ouch- I can so relate to 'things done my way' and 'not having confidence in other's abilities'. I hope I am overcoming this as I get older, but in looking at the kind of friend that I am- I still see that a little bit but don't think I would have without your words. Always something to work on, but at least I have things to keep me busy. Great post.
ReplyDeleteOk, I am admitting this here but only to you!
ReplyDeleteI don't normally play well with others either.
If I decide to make a friend and that friend becomes to clingy, wanting to do stuff all the time then HASTA LAVISTA baby to them. I find a way out of the friendship fast. Clingy people drive me insane!
Hence I don't have very many girlfriends at all.
My 4 sisters are my closest friends. Aaron is my best friend though. I would rather be with him than ANYONE else.
Hippy hop, hippity hop.
ReplyDeleteWill the Easter Bunny stop?
Will he leave a treat behind,
An Easter basket for me to find?
I'll look over here,
I'll look over there,
I'll look behind things,
I'll look everywhere
I'll look until I find my treat,
And then I'll sit right down and eat.
Happy Easter!
I LOVE your mom!
That's a great picture of you and your mom, I love the mood of it. I don't get along well with my mom a lot of the time either, so those times that we do are rather significant.
ReplyDelete