Words have eluded me for an entire week now…
Trying to find the words to describe the incredible experience that is Listen to Your Mother.
photo credit Kim Thompson-Steel
For those who know me in real life, to think that words would elude me is laughable.
But this experience that I had, that the fourteen of us had, cannot be summed up in a few sentences, a Facebook status update, a few 140-character tweets, or a phone call to an old friend.
It was beyond belief.
In sharing my words with this audience – together with these thirteen other souls I had bonded with over coffee and tears – I found that I lost my words in the end.
I am not an overly emotional person.
But this experience of baring my soul, of cheering my castmates from the wings, high-fiving and hugging and crying and laughing…
It affected me deeply.
So to Ann Imig I say thank you from the bottom of my heart for creating this awesome and amazing show.
To Kim and Kirsten, who gave so very much of themselves to see that our San Francisco show was an incredible blend of stories that moved the audience (and who are hysterically funny to boot)…thank you.
To Nichole and Melissa, who were already such good friends of mine before we took the stage together…and now are stuck with me forever…thank you, sweet friends.
To Rhea, Rhianna, Maggie, Lorrie, Andre, Joy, Robyn, Estelle, and Esther…you are all amazingly talented, funny, and caring people that I was honored to share a stage with. Thank you for sharing it with me.
To my amazingly large group of work friends and writer friends, who practically bought the entire first two rows of seats, thank you for your support of my silly hobby-turned-passion, writing.
To my mother, who I have always tried to listen to…thank you for listening to me that night.
To my husband, who encourages me every day to have fun, follow my dreams, and push myself just a bit further than my comfort zone…I love you, babe.
To my daughter, who actually does listen to her mother…but for one night this spring, listened to her with several hundred other people too…thank you for your support and cheering.
To my incredible family members (and Vanessa) who sat in the audience and cheered for me…thank you from the bottom of my heart.
It means the world.
We came, we read, we shared, we laughed, and we cried (and possibly shared Cosmopolitans from a flask).
We single-handedly proved that there are no Mommy Wars, there is no one perfect “type” of Mommy, and we really all exist to prop each other up on the bad days and raise our glasses and cheer each other on the good days.
Because in the end?
We had mothers, we became mothers, and we raised mothers.
photo credit Kim Thompson-Steel
And for one beautiful evening in May?
We rocked San Francisco.
I’m a forty-something mom trying to find the humor and joy in everyday life...
I blog about raising teenagers who were just babies yesterday, the craziness of being a middle-aged woman, the perils of a clean home, wistfulness over babies, and anything else that makes me laugh (or cry) in these years between changing diapers and wearing them.
HI beautiful! I haven’t been here since you changed the blog, it’s gorgeous.
and this, well is it because my heart is part of yours because we are the LYTM Class of 2012 or is it because I look at you reading and smiling and I know how emotional and fantastic you were feeling (I felt it all too on another coast) or maybe it’s just because there is NO ONE that is better at MOTHERING words than you….with all of it, this recap was as moving, poignant and amazing as you are. xoxox
Man, what an awesome experience! I loved going to it last year and SO wanted a shot at doing it this year!
I’m so glad that you and Melissa and the others were able to do it!
It is definitely a great way of showing the mommy wars is a media-invented war!
I love what LTYM has created. This is beautiful my friend and I know you totally ROCKED San Francisco. Your words need to be shared everywhere.
Am sure you could hear a pin drop … and many a tissue was required xxxx
Oh, I wished I lived in San Fran! It sounds beautiful and amazing. Congratulations.
I’m so incredibly happy and honored to be stuck with you my friend
This made me cry. I loved every moment of this experience with you. From our drives into San Fran to that final bow moment. Will never forget it. And you were simply amazing. XO
I love this celebration of a post. So many of my friends told me they cried through your whole piece! Your writing could never have been a silly hobby — it was what you were always meant to do. I’m only sorry I couldn’t have stayed behind to meet your lovely family. So glad we got to share the stage together!
[...] Sherri [...]
Oh, what a beautiful post, Sherri! Congrats! This is one thing I don’t think I could ever do…kudos to you and the other women for having the strength to do it!
chills, sherri. i have chills.
i am so happy with you.
this is why i want to try and bring LTYM to Kansas City. It’s a long shot, but…I want to be able to see and experience it.
Congrats to you, mama!
xoxox
You all are never going to hear the end of it for not sharing that flask….
I feel deeply grateful for not only having had you as part of the cast, but also for having made a fledgling friendship that I hope to nurture further.
Blessed? Yes.
x
I found your piece the most challenging to hear – not just because I went on after but because the thought of sending my girls off on a plane makes me feel sick. Thank you for challenging me and showing me that this part of motherhood can done with grace,
What a tremendously special and once in a lifetime experience. I am so happy for you. I am sure you were awesome!
Thank you Sherri!!! So honored and humbled by your words.
Yes, Sherri, to all of it.
What Ann has done is given a voice to so many who wouldn’t have one any other way.
I hope she knows the power of what she’s created. It’s an energy that is felt after every show, it’s a soul that’s been validated, it’s an ear in the audience that’s been enlightened.
It’s a powerful thing, and it’s changing our part of the world.
I really want to be involved more with LTYM, because on the LTYM stage, is where my life changed.
And that is no exaggeration.
BEAUTIFUL POST, SHERRI!! Just perfectly beautiful.
This post was absolutely lovely and awesome and wonderful and I bet you STILL feel like it doesn’t do what you felt and experienced justice.
And that? Is even more awesome.
I hope someday to sit in the audience of a LTYM show.
And dare I say…participate?
no. I don’t dare say that yet.
But maybe.
Someday.
I am so proud of you, friend. SO PROUD. I wish I was there to fist pump and blow you kisses.
I sure do you miss you.
That sounds like an incredible, not-to-be-missed night. I would have loved to have been there and brought enough people to book out another couple of rows. Congrats on what must have been an amazing night.
I am so happy you got to experience this! I love your words, and I adore the line about having mothers, being mothers, and raising mothers.
I want to see a LTYM one day
Just beautiful, Sherri. Yes. Yes to everything here. And then some.
It has been 2 weeks since LTYM-NYC has come and gone and I am kind of besides myself. It was so magical, such a transformative day, and producing it was at the absolute center of my life for the 2, maybe even 3 months leading up to it.
And now? I miss it terribly. Writing is a lonely profession. Even blogging, which is social is not the same. At least we have a reunion coming up in June.
I can’t wait to for the YouTube videos, to see everyone else’s shows!
What a beautiful tribute. I am so glad that you got to be apart of of this. I am very proud f you friend and wish so much tht I could have been sitting in the audience cheering you on. xoxo
Can you hear my virtual standing ovation?
Mine, too. I’m standing next to Poppy. Clapping. Virtually.
But she can’t see me so we shouldn’t tell her.
(I don’t want to creep her out…)
I. Need. Video.
(Waiting with bated breath…)
How amazing it must have been, dying to see video.
What an absolutely stunning experience, and love letter to it!
(I’m so very happy for you!)
Reading this makes me want to have this experience. What a wonderful memory you must have.
It was AMAZING. I am so proud to call you a friend and so honored that I was able to share this moment with you. Bravo.
Bravo my friend, thank you for sharing this amazing experience with me!! One day I hope to sit across from you over coffee and share life in person…
Ditto.
This bad ass, potty mouth mom was left teary eyed and speechless. Even a month later, I have a LTYM hangover, not believing it happened, and so very sad it’s over. My 15 min of fame only lasted 4 minutes and 17 seconds, but it was clearly the greatest moments of my writing life. Can’t wait to see you do yours when YouTube video is released.
congrats.
Yes! Finally someone writes about Blog.
[...] was because of my experience as an audience member, and people like Sherri, Kirsten, and Jasmine sharing their thoughts about being a part of the cast, that I set a goal for [...]