Thankful for this Cattle-ist

It’s 8:38am on Thanksgiving morning. I check Facebook and see that two friends are on their way to the Turkey Trot fun run. I’VE GOT TO COW!!!  Quick!  I jump from my kitchen table and text Susie.

I’ve been wanting to get her in a cow suit all year because I want to write about her, but I hadn't planned on this at all. I was still in my jammies with unkept hair and unbrushed teeth.

This is another case of cow suit serendipity that Susie and I cowed on Thanksgiving. She has been the catalyst for some of my most wonderful, life-changing paths this past year.

I interruped her family's holiday breakfast, but she didn't miss a beef in agreeing to cow. 

Susie fell recently and has the most brilliant of black eyes.
Guess we'll have to cow again so you can see her smile that's in them.

 

There’s a book by Mitch Album called “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.” I’ve not read the whole thing but was introduced to it when a friend read it for a book club.  From Wikipedia because I’m lazy and have things to do on the rest of my holiday:

The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a novel by Mitch Albom. It follows the life and death of a maintenance man named Eddie. In a heroic attempt to save a little girl from being killed by an amusement park ride that is about to fall, Eddie is killed and sent to heaven, where he encounters five people who significantly impacted him while he was alive.

Susie is one of the people I imagine I would meet in heaven.

She is the chair of our city’s Human Relations Advisory Committee. She is a quiet, unassuming introvert who found herself leading the effort to pass Pocatello’s non-discrimination ordinance. She never intended to take on all that she did. She never imagined all of the change she would inspire. And, she likely never wants to do any of it again, but I’m so glad that she did what she did.

Because of Susie’s efforts and because of some of the harsh words that people hurled in her direction, I just couldn’t be quiet any more. I spoke candidly at a City Council meeting sharing bits of me that I never, ever wanted to in such a public forum. I’ll run around in a cow suit ANY day, but all this sharing of my vulnerable self…oy.

I was misquoted by our local newspaper after my public testimony and experienced one of those most frightening and angry waves of emotion I ever had. Being misunderstood is one of my greatest fears and that article generated a colossal collection of misunderstandings that I was compelled to address and correct.

If was after I contacted the paper’s editor, and he let me offer a rebuttal that I became a regular columnist. I had no idea I could write, let alone that people might want to read my moosings. Susie’s actions and presence in my life uncovered a well of words that I hope never runs dry.

As I was gargling with mouthwash and throwing the bin of cow suits and signs in the back of my truck this morning, I smiled. Ha! The signs! I've been thinking I need new ones, but they were perfect for today. You get tired and weary when you take your fight to the public stage. There were many a time we encouraged each other with these exact sentiments.

Before the Turkey Trotters trotted by.
(It' IS time for new signs. Any quippy ideas?)

This morning just hours before suiting up with Susie, I posted that I was thankful for finding my voice(s). Susie so greatly helped with that this past year and I am so grateful for her.