How Y'all Doing? Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived

by Leslie Jordan

Years ago, I had been told by Barbara Miller, the legendary casting director, that when I died, on my tombstone, it should read, HERE LIES THE OTHER WAY TO GO.

❤️

“Happiness is a choice. Happiness is a habit. And happiness is something you have to work hard at. It does not just happen.”

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our parents “did the best they could with the light they had to see with.”

My mind is like a bad neighborhood. Honey, you do not want to go up there alone.

Or perhaps because it was my own personal American horror story.

“Dear, the key to a good relationship is the key. Give me back the key.”

I’m more along the lines of a Dolly Parton. What you see is what you get!

I think that fear keeps so many of us from being successful at things outside our realm of experience. We love to stay in our comfort zone, but the growth only comes when we wander outside of that zone.

Soo true!

true happiness can only come from being “of loving service to others.”

“Will the circle be unbroken, by and by, Lord, by and by. There’s a better home awaiting. In the sky, Lord, in the sky.”

I have loved Dolly forever and ever. Amen.

When we were kids, Pigeon Forge was just a stop on the road to Gatlinburg.

The world is a better place for having Dolly Parton in it.

And I, personally, want to emulate her. I want to live a life where no one can say a bad word about me. Because I have never heard a bad word about Dolly. Folks may or may not like me, but they certainly will not be able to denigrate me. Because I plan to live my life asking myself constantly, “Well, what would Dolly do?”

What would dolly do??

In the summertime, the bookmobile would pull into the elementary school parking lot once a week. At my mother’s encouragement, I would walk down the hill and climb up into that lumbering bookmobile.

I think our dreams are what sustain us in hard times. Dreams are what keep us childlike. I love that they can grow and expand as we grow and expand.

Eudora Welty’s Delta Wedding

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No shame in my game.

Slowly, I began to realize how much my imagined fears and how much my shame had hindered me throughout my life. Since then, I have tried to live a fearless and shame-free life in the Sunlight of the Spirit, just as Don taught me.

Why is it that we love to drag all that baggage from childhood with us? We heave it dutifully. We haul it everywhere we go. And we pull it out at the drop of a hat for all to see. Nope, we are not going to let go of all that baggage.

The thing about shame is that it is so selective. I knew my dad loved me. He showed it daily in a million different ways. So why remember failures?

Honey, if embellishment were a sin, I would be sitting in a roaring fire with Beelzebub right now.

So, to all my dear new friends, this is not goodbye forever. It is only goodbye for now. Goodbye till I get revved up and ready to launch into a whole bunch of new stories. See you then.

Miss your funny self 😭🥹