Family Night . . . Inside Out

Last night was family night.  Three of us snuck into our PJs early while D cooked pasta for dinner.  I was excited because I had convinced the three of them that it was a good idea to have dinner and a movie in the basement. 
Granted, eating pasta was not easy, but hey we had a little table for the girls. 

Granted, Inside Out was rated PG, but we were going to be there to explain things to both daughters. 

The evening had a grand beginning.  For appetizers, the three double chromosomed individuals danced in our "dance room" to Four Non-Blondes, and a whole host of Best of the '80s musical scores. It was a riot.  I flipped Ladybug in circles while HoneyPie shook her rear and head.  Best of all, we were out of earshot from XY who, as I said, was cooking dinner and talking to his brother on the phone. 

Finally, it was time to move our suarez into the basement.  Needless to say, I have never heard Ladybug laugh so heartily.  It was awesome.  Her sister also seemed to either be in on the joke in some parts, or was simply laughing at her older sibling.  It was fantastic. 

However, not so comfortably both girls proceeded to create torrential downpours.  Honeypie and D ended up going upstairs to embark on some magnatile construction.  I held Ladybug in my arms for the remainder of the movie.  What impressed me so (and many others as well) was that the emotion, Joy, was so often trying to suppress her fellow emotion, Sadness.  We are not comfortable with sadness or some of the other uglier emotions.  Sadness does have a purpose. Often, it is instrumental in people coming together to ask for help.  I hugged L a little tighter upon coming to this realization.

So often, Ladybug can be pretty loud with her emotions, especially those that are less than flattering.  This always rubs me the wrong way, and unfortunately, does not bring out my best mothering.  What is hard for me is to sit with these feelings that she has.  I recall engendering some of these same feelings and not having positive outcomes as a result.  However, how terrible could those outcomes have been?  I am still here, I have a loving family, great coworkers, and a wonderful community in which I live. 

So, the thought for me today, in addition to writing more to live, is to learn to sit with emotions that are wrought with hopelessness and despair without trying to fix them.  In my professional role, I am often charged with trying to help patients solve these emotional conundrums.  Take your professional hat off, Lady, I tell myself.  Jump into your life and be.