You lift my feet off the ground, you spin me around, you make me crazier...

Recall Aunt Mamie? She’s a brazen girl, shocking, full of life. She lives life out loud. At the age of three she shook her bootie through the house singing “I love rock & roll, put another dime in the juke box, baby…” at the top of her voice in a flashy, sequined bright blue tutu. She completely lacked self-consciousness. Her whole childhood was a hands on hips, spinning, dancing, singing affair, and she still lives life that way.

One snowy day in Colorado, my now 9 year-old Julia was about three, and she put her hands on her hips in a flashy sequined hot pink tutu and shook her bootie in the kitchen to ‘N Sync (“it ain’t no lie, baby, bye, bye, bye”) and I was struck with the truth of genetic fidelity in a family tree. She couldn’t possibly have known of her mimicry of her beloved Aunt, and yet there it was, full in my face, so funny and so familiar to me.

This morning I lay in bed while Julia performed Taylor Swifts’ “Crazier” for her daddy and me. She’s preparing for tonight’s talent show try-outs; she’s planning on singing for her entire school. Her little cherubic face, all freckled, red hair – she sang out with her whole heart, a real performer. And of course it brought back so many images of Mamie, the consummate performer herself, not the least performance of which was belting it out onstage at her own wedding reception…resplendent in her white gown… jazz ensemble behind her…love song to her new groom.

What brave girls, Julia and Mamie. I wish I could be like them, but my genes tend to the careful, watchful, thoughtful, and wary of what others think of me genes. How I admire Mamie, Julia, and obviously other ancestors in our family, living life out loud, not afraid to make people look at them and laugh, and sometimes even be brazen and shocking. They bring such joy.