Dear Me and You, Moms Mats and Mushrooms
Dear Me and You,
It’s Thursday morning, I eagerly get the whole team ready and out the door to make it to my 8:30AM Hap Kido class; it’s a women’s class and we all happen to be mothers, some of older kids, some of babies, and some of more than three kids. And like the diverse makeup of our families, our skills vary, which makes for a fun class because we all shine bright in different areas.
I walk in and the music was raging, albeit today wasn’t Rage Against the Machine, but rather Cypress Hill’s “Insane in the Membrane,” an apropos song choice of current mood and like us moms do, we checked in with one another. The typical morning stressors shared. The lamenting of exhaustion. The interruption of a phone call from a husband answered on an Apple Watch, “Did you take $300 out of the ATM?” We see the eye-roll, “Yes, I did. I’m in the middle of class. Book fair. Bye.” And then, we continue on practicing wrist locks and escapes.
I share that I cut back on booze. Another mom, “Ooo, me too. In fact, I’m thinking about going sober.” A few of us shudder at the thought. I mentioned CBD, edibles, and that I ordered some drink named HiYo. All of those items overlapped with others in our group. We focus on our wrist locks once again– cat stance, hand comes up, grab the back of the hand, and wring the towel.
After moments of concentration a mom asks, “Have you thought about microdosing?” Without hesitation I replied, “Yes!” And then, another connection was formed in our group of mama misfits– we all had thought about microdosing; in fact, one other mom giggled a bit and said, “My husband and I just had some mushrooms a couple weeks ago and it was… fun and interesting.” I’m curious. And for the next 30 minutes we all talk about why we are interested in trying mushrooms.
We share how we have been struggling with wanting something that “takes the edge off,” provides a release, and sparks fun. We want all those things but without the munchies and hangovers. I talk about how I’m more blue than I want to be. And I tell them, “I’m working out, doing the therapy work, squeezing in some mindfulness, and writing more. But I want something else.” We make plans to talk with our husbands about microdosing with us because our expert mushroom mama makes her own “special” chocolate bars, dubbing them Date Night Bars; we feel lighter for sharing; we feel lighter for our plans of mushrooms; we feel lighter after a round of jabs and crosses.
In this space there has never been any judgment– even when I can’t fall correctly– and I don’t know if we'll get together to eat mushrooms. I don't even know if I will try microdosing but what I do know is that just the simple act of coming together and sharing gave me a little something of the thing I was looking for.
We made it through another day, me and you. Kudos.