Yesterday I went to a memorial service for Rosemary Wyatt, the wife of my mother's first cousin, Frank Jr. We didn't get to be close because they lived in Chicago, so I only saw them a few times a year, when they came South to visit Frank's mother, my Aunt Nannie Lee. And yet, I have vivid childhood memories of those visits.
Rosemary was very exotic to me. Everything about her was different—her Chicago-native accent; her stylish updo; her sophisticated "city clothes." No one would ever mistake her for a country girl. I remember exactly what she sounded like—and how I couldn't wait for her to talk, when I was a kid, so I could hear that accent, which completely fascinated me.
During the service, her family talked about how much she loved Chicago and enjoyed showing the city to her nieces and nephews when they came to visit. I never thought about it when I was a child, but it's pretty amazing that someone who was such a city girl could come out to my grandmother's farmhouse in Harpersville, Alabama, and seem completely at home. But she did. Always smiling and laughing with the family, never any hint of "oh my gosh, get me out of these cotton fields and back to the city."
I need to be more like that—more open to embracing wherever I happen to be instead of "I can't wait to get back home, back to what's familiar."
Last week, I had to make an overnight trip to New York. I don't enjoy air travel. Let's just put that on the table. On my return trip, the Atlanta-to-Birmingham leg got really choppy as we started to descend. And as I tried to discreetly put a vice grip on my armrest and get my prayer life in order, I looked across the aisle at a little girl—no more than three—who was looking out the window, gleefully kicking her feet, and letting out an occasional "whee!" when the plane took an unexpected dip.
Granted, she was far too young to know about wind shear or tropical storms on the Doppler. But she, like Rosemary, gave me food for thought. Often, the difference between fear and excitement is perspective—how we interpret our situation. And the difference between enjoying an unfamiliar place and merely enduring it? The same. Perspective. It's all about how we choose to see it.
Prayers for Rosemary's family this morning.