Barbara Slabaugh

It goes without question that I must write some thoughts and memories about my Mom-mom as she waits for Jesus to call her through the “pearly gates” she’s been yearning for the last couple weeks. I still feel kind of weird calling her “Mom-mom,” when everyone else refers to her as “Grandma.” I don’t think it really hit me that the name I use for her is all that unique until I left Delmarva and discovered that “mom-mom” is lingo largely native of Sussex County. I was taught to call her “Mom-mom,” and since I’ve only ever called her by that name I won’t stop now.

Wedding Weekend

One of my Albanian "sisters" - Blerta - just got married. The experience proved particularly unique since I had lived in this family's home and am considered one of the sisters. Once you have been taken into a home and cared for by a family, you hold a special place of honor and respect in their circle. That honor is extended over and over… it cannot be earned, is not easily removed, and it must simply be accepted.

A wedding in Albanian culture is far more extravagant than a wedding in my home culture. For starters, it is more like two weddings… one for the bride and one for the groom. The bride's family hosts their extended family, friends, and neighbors to a wedding feast and celebration on Saturday, and the groom's family holds a separate celebration for their invitees on Sunday.

Musings on a Sunday

In a dresser drawer in my bedroom back home in Delaware sits a set a quilt blocks, about half of them finished. I think I started them when I was in my early teens. I took them to college with me, appliqued a couple more. I’ve thought about them many times, so desperately wanting to finally finish them. My mom offered to finish them once, but I said no because I wanted the whole thing to be MY work. I still intend to finish it someday. If thinking about things got stuff done, I’d have the world changed by now.

I’m a product of a generation that desperately wants to make a mark in this world, tending to think we’re more significant than we are. Our baby-boomer parents raised us asking us, “What do you want to be when you grow up? Whatever you want to do, you can do it if you put your mind to it.” We are given inflated faith in our personal abilities. (The Huffington Post had an article I found really interesting that characterized my generation. If you're interested, you can read it…. here.) 

No Such Thing as Helpless

My walk to work takes me past a couple of dumpsters for neighborhood use. One morning as I passed, I noticed the sound of a puppy's cries. When I looked over the side of the dumpster I saw a tiny tan puppy, hardly a week old and the size of my hand, straining against the weight of garbage in which it was stuck, yelping for someone to take notice. It was just a puppy, but my emotions tore at me as I stood there listening to its little yelps.

I wanted desperately to reach in and rescue it, but the problem is that the attitude toward dogs is much different than I'm used to seeing in America. They live on the streets, find food in the garbage heaps, run away from boys who throw rocks at them. A few people keep them as pets, but in general they aren't valued at all. So when unwanted puppies turn up, they are simply thrown onto the garbage heap with the rest of the trash. A woman walked by me with her child, saw my distress and stopped to sympathize with me and the cries of the little dog. "Terrible, terrible," she said, lending support to my perspective that life, even an animal, shouldn't have to suffer. But there was nothing we could do. Even if I had saved it, I don't have the resources or time to take care of it. Picking up that one helpless little puppy wasn't going to save puppies from being thrown into dumpsters because the problem is rooted in people's attitude toward dogs.

I Will Not Keep Silent

For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
    for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet, 
till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, 
   her salvation like a blazing torch. (Isaiah 62:1)

Something rose up from deep within me. It was almost as if I felt my insides burning, indignation wracking my spirit with a gigantic, Stop! This is not right!