Nothing Gold

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay. -Robert Frost

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Location: Arlington, Virginia, United States

I am a white American middle class suburban housewife trying desperately to tell herself that that is not who she is. One time I was a glowing young ruffian. Oh my God it was a million years ago.

Monday, October 10, 2005

A Toast

This is a toast to a woman that most of you know. Recently, our little corner of the world erupted in rejoicing to find out that she is pregnant. And, with twins, no less. None of us can imagine the existance of anyone who would make better parents than she and her husband. She is one of those strong, beautiful women that all of us want to be like. Only, rather than causing jealosy, she makes each of us work harder to be better people, to be more like her.
This weekend, my little family helped move her soon-to-be-larger family move out of their house. Now, being in her first trimester, this woman was not feeling well. As many of you know, the first trimester of pregancy is surprisingly difficult. You feel sick nearly all of the time, and way more tired than you were prepared for. Do you know what causes the fatigue? Your body is building a placenta. A placenta is an organ that will protect and nourish your baby (or babies) for 40 weeks, give or take (hopefully take 2 exactly). Your body is actually building a new organ. That is freaking amazing. No wonder you're tired. And, on top of that, you have to pee a lot which you didn't expect to happen until much later. And, you are getting more advice than you've ever gotten in your life (this actually gets worse after the baby is born, but it's hard at the beginning when you're not used to it).
So she was exhausted and nauseous the entire day, not to mention feeling a whole lot of emotion regarding recent happenings in her life. And yet, one would not know any of this unless one were to specifically ask. She simply does not complain. I would like to take this opportunity to remind her that while pregnant, one is allowed to be as complaining and self-indulgent as one wants. If she had sat down, put her feet up and asked us to feed her grapes we would have happily complied. I can't really see her ever doing this exactly, but, come on, not even a short nap in a busy, stressful day. I hope that she may come to understand that we all want to help her. We want to feel as if we are doing something to support her little family, to have a part in bringing two wonderful people into the world. So, please, indulge us, ask us to give up our seats or to bring you a glass of water. I promise that we are not pretending to want to help, it is one of the dearest wishes of our hearts that we might be able to make a difference in this for you, to make it one jot easier with a little exertion and attention.
Let's all raise a glass of organic milk to Stacy.

3 Comments:

Blogger kate said...

Very, very well put.

10:04 AM  
Blogger Rebecca said...

I am such a huge fan of Stacy. She amazes me at the depths of her character. There are so many times I want to tell her it's OK TO COMPLAIN. They both handle everything in life with such grace. I hope they'll lean on us some atleast. I would LOVE to know how we can be of help. They give us all so much just by being themselves. I want to give something back!

8:11 PM  
Blogger [REDACTED] said...

To Stacy!

10:21 AM  

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