Ideas for This I Believe

I believe in hot flashes at 41, almost 42... don't say I'm too young, not one more person, because apparently I am not too young.  Check out how much I believe in white hair.  Total belief.  I also believe in fragments, and calling dogs bad names.  Children too, if they have a sense of humor and they are from your own uterus, not such a great idea if they're from a foreign uterus.  I believe that my daughter's Lit. teacher told her that she's as dumb as a brick yesterday.  Good for her, isn't private school nice?  You can call your students dumb, and also push them into snow banks, as long as they have a sense of humor and are not prone to becoming injured easily.  I believe that my little dog can be spiteful with her urine. 
I believe that my grandmother cut all of her hair off when she started getting hot flashes too.  She looked like a Barbie doll, all legs and bosom.  Me... not so much. 

I believe that my grandparents had extreme personalities and were searching for something, something big.   Atheism for Grandma ... left her body to a medical school ... grandpa believed in a God who looked a lot like a Jesuit priest.  He said two hours of prayers every morning before going off to pull teeth and make gold fillings.  He did not believe in giving his family novocaine.  That worked out for me because my teeth were fine, not so much for the rest of them.  Too bad for you, imperfect teeth family members.  I sat reading Highlights magazine while grandpa hoisted his foot onto the edge of the chair to get leverage to pull your teeth out while you writhed in pain.
Don't worry, I got mine.  Boys go to Harvard, girls make dried out pot roast, unless they're nuns and then they get to study Latin and live in the loveliest convents on Earth with beautiful, old furniture, peace and quiet and plenty of books and time to pray.  Oh, when I was little I believed in being a nun.
I believe I was a nun and a monk over and over and over again.  If you want to know what I believe it is that ... that we circle around and around.  I believe what the Buddhists believe.  I was raised Catholic, I had a heavy dose of the incense and candles, Latin and rosaries... I kind of loved it and felt warm and at home mostly, especially when Grandpa and Sister Miriam Catherine were close by ... but I believe what the Buddhists believe and so I perform my actions without being attached to the fruits of my actions.  I believe that writing is difficult because I am letting go of all the extra stuff and writing seems extra.  I believe I should be working in an orphanage somewhere, taking care of children, cooking food, washing clothes, repairing things, growing vegetables and flowers, picking fruit, reading and singing and drawing pictures in the dirt, being a mom to the mom-less.  I believe it is not necessary to have all of these things that I am surrounded by.
I believe I have to figure out a way to become quiet about this issue, at least for the next six years.  Ibelieve, for now, I can do the best I can right here.