My mother went on Retreat. Retreat is something Catholics used to do (and quite possibly still do) for a day or a weekend to help kick start their spirituality. With the added bonus of a couple that I have been on, of getting away from the kids for a day or a weekend.
During her Retreat, a lecturer asked the women to write down on a piece of paper one negative attribute about themselves. My mother wrote "lazy". Then all these pieces of paper were gathered and dumped into a makeshift fire pit and the lecturer said he was going to set fire to them and the women would feel cleansed of these attributes.
My mother did not wish to be "cleansed" of her laziness. It was all she could do not to jump up and say "Wait, I want mine back." But, of course burning the papers did not make the attributes disappear, and my mother continued to enjoy being lazy till the end of her days.
In fact, her laziness is alive and well and living in her favorite daughter. My days of actually having to get dressed and do something outside the house are getting fewer and farther between. Its not that I don't like doing things outside the house (well, I kind of don't) but I love the lazy days.
6 comments:
I've never heard this story before. Where was the retreat held?
I remember a lot of things about Ma but lazy is not one of them.
I think the retreat was held at St. Paul on Schoolcraft. I believe that after her years of hard work she perceived her last years of leisure as laziness.
I can't immagine trying to live a lazy life with a husband like Papa on your back. I love being single.
His son Marcel, doesn't fall far from the tree.
Ma told me this story herself on one of my visits over there. After watching her wash clothes in the basement, hang on the line outside, shop and cook all the meals, and wash the ceiling and walls in our bedroom,etc. etc., I was not surprised to hear her say (now that she & Pa were alone in the house, and he enjoyed taking care of her and doing the cooking, etc.) "I have grown lazy. All I do is get up, get dressed, and sit in front of the picture window and watch the neighbors walk by to the grocery store on the corner." No surprise that she thought of herself as 'lazy' at this point in her life when all she was accustomed to was work, work, work.
If my brothers are as much like Pa as I am like Mama, then St. Pat, St. Lori and St. Nancy will be joining St. Mama in heaven.
Lazy is too strong a word and borders on sloth. Mamma was not a wordsmith and used what easily came to her. A better and more appropriate word she could have used is repose, which is earned through hard work.
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