Day 14: Your earliest memory

I remember being 6 or 7 years old, sitting on the floor in the bathroom in my family's Connecticut home.  My younger sister Meredith (who would have been maybe 3 at the time) was sitting on the toilet.  She was still potty training, and I wanted to help.  My mom had this book called "Every Little Girl Poops."  I had the book in my hands and was reading it to her, trying to help her feel comfortable using the big girl potty.  I was still learning to read at the time, so a lot of it was me looking at the pictures, along with memories of when my mom had read it to me.  I think maybe this encounter is on some Harner History VHS tape somewhere...

Speaking of toilets, random fact about me...my absolute favorite kind of toilet paper is Angel Soft.  Perfect balance of softness and strength.

I've never been a fan of Oprah.  I think she is a very spiritually confused individual, and her and I disagree on almost everything.  I will watch her show every now and then, if it's about something I'm interested in, or if there is a celebrity on that I like.  Today she was talking with Goldie Hawn.  They began talking about marriage.  Did anyone else know that Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell have been together for 27 years, but aren't married?  I had no idea.  Anyways, Oprah asked Goldie how she has handled the "not getting married" questions for all those years.  Goldie answered, "I handle it by saying 'I don't want to be married.'"  She goes on to say that she doesn't see the reason for getting married, and that when she and Kurt asked their children years ago if they wanted them to get married, the children told them that they didn't want Goldie and Kurt to get married.  Oprah and Goldie then go on to discuss how women have the choice to get married or to not get married, and that it's an "empowering" and "important" choice.   Goldie then said, "I think marriage sometimes can incarcerate, or en-cage you, or imprison you if you do it for the wrong reasons."  She went on to say, "Psychologically, a lot of people change even when things are good, and sometimes there's a psychological change, like you know, the door went down, or the door closed.  So I always said if you're a bird in a cage, for me, then I love being in my cage, I love it.  But keep the door open."  I had to rewind this several times (DVR is amazing!) just to make sure I heard that correctly.  And as most of the world already knows, Oprah is anti-marriage as well.  I can't help but think that these 2 women are scared of commitment.  It's a cop-out.  Not getting married means there's always a chance to skip out when things get too hard.  Marriage is not a cage, and it's not to be restrictive.  It's not just a piece of paper you get at the courthouse either.  Marriage is an earthly union between a MAN and a WOMAN, with a divine purpose...to honor God through their love of each other.  I cannot wrap my mind around couples who live together, spend decades together, have children together, but refuse to get married.  I think this is largely due to the fact that they don't understand what marriage really is, and why it was created.  What a warped, unfortunate way of thinking...and going through life.

My spotlight of the day belongs to Cassie.  I met her at the same place I met Jenn, just a year prior (2004).  That means we've been friends for almost 7 years.  Wow, Cassie!!!  For the record, Spring Hill Camp is a great place to meet people and make lasting friends.  Now back to Cassie...I didn't really have any interaction with her my first 2 summers at camp.  She was a Lead Counselor (over 3-4 counselors), and I was a wrangler (I was in the bard all day).  Our relationship really took off that third summer because I was a counselor.  She was such a great Lead and we bonded.  That was my last year at camp, but we became Facebook friends and kept in contact occasionally.  I knew she lived in Tennessee and was going to school outside Nashville.  I went down to visit her a few times with friends and had a blast!  I ended up moving to Brentwood in the summer of 2007, and she had just moved from Murfreesboro to Brentwood.  We got apartments right by each other (she lived in the apartment right beneath mine) and really hit it off.  The next year we were roommates.  After spending a year living together, I think Cassie got tired of living with me.  I don't blame her...I'm ultra clean, anal retentive with things.  I think we make better friends than roommates, for the record ;)  Her and I still live 2 minutes from each other, and we've been spending almost every day together for the last week.  She is a ray of sunshine in my life.  Cassie is hilarious, loving, funny, attentive, pretty, bubbly, fun, engaging, and spontaneous among other things.  I'm so very thankful to have her in my day-to-day life.  She's one of those friends that I hope I always live close to so that we can raise our children together.  She is an inspiration to me for her dedication and hard work in being healthy.  I can always count on her for a laugh.  We are so similar, her and I...it's scary.  She deserves nothing but perfection and pure happiness in her life.  Here's to you, Cassie Marie...I so very much love you.

Wow, this sure is a long one (insert "that's what she said" here).  I never write this much when I blog.  Oh well, sometimes I just have things I need to get off my chest.  I guess today is one of those days.  Gotta go get ready for SOAK worship tonight at church with the lady-friends!  Until tomorrow...