I continue to enjoy our Christmas lights and tree with ornaments and Christmas carols (lots of them!) All of the Nativities. The only garland that is lit is the one on the piano. the outdoor ones have no lights. why?-- because they aren't plugged in. It's about extension cords and and that sort of stuff. Next year it will happen but for this year the bit of green and and pine cones are just fine. I still want to get two live wreaths, one for outdoors and one indoors.
My mind is full and my heart is full. My thoughts have been filled with friends this last while. I value my friends. Lately I've been thinking of my youngest friends.
These 3 friendships started with love and they were initiated by each friend. It's interesting to me that they each felt drawn to me around the time they were 4 years old. Now they are 7, 8 and 11. One lives here. One in Vancouver. One in Nevada. Brooklyn. Aleya. Lydia.
I've thought a lot about what makes a young child turn to an adult? Talk to them. Trust them. Want to sit with them at Church. Draw them pictures. Make gifts. Want to come visit at my house.
How does that happen?
I did not reach out and try to intentionally befriend them. Maybe I appeared very grandmotherly or non-threatening?
Eventually I realized they each liked me to speak softly and privately to them and to listen with interest to what they had to say.
Aleya, wanted me at her baptism. I didn't get that message and missed it. She would drop by with her Grandmother at times. She is very shy. She never sat with me at Church and now they have moved. Sometimes Aleya (her family at that time lived with MaryLynne) would join us as we talked about the Gospel and she always had a lot of questions. Questions that seemed so mature for one so young. Her Grandmother MaryLynne just passed away. MaryLynne had wanted others to Grandmother her grandchildren as she knew she would pass on. I will continue to love Aleya. (I spoke at MaryLynne's funeral and brought the hummingbird feeder that she'd given me one year for my birthday. Aleya had come with her that day. I gave it back to Aleya after the funeral. She told her Daddy that I am one of her Grandmothers.)
Brooklyn, is spunky and adorable and treats me so kind. She used to sit with me more often but she likes me to herself and our pew has sort of filled in. She draws me pictures and makes me things and likes to visit. She likes to know I have saved her pictures she has made me. She is bothered, as I am, that I cannot find a flower pin she gave me. She likes to visit.
Brooklyn will be 8 next year. Aleya will soon be 9. And the longest friendship is with Lydia and she will be 12 shortly.
Lydia sat with us for years and her parents and brothers right behind us. She was so shy and so sweet. To our dismay she moved away. We determined to stay in touch but neither of us did real great at it. Now we have reconnected and I'm so thankful. We vowed early on to be BFF's and now we are back on course.
What I see now is the impact and encouragement I can have on Lydia as she moves into the YW program next week. Today she got to participate and dance at the Cedar River Temple festivities. I see that all those years of seemingly nothing, except sweet pleasantries laced with love, were actually laying the foundation of giving me freedom of speech, to tell her whatever I want at this point in time, regarding my feelings/thoughts on the Gospel and life in general. There is a trust there and a love that is real.
I'm actually going to write letters. On stationary! Use stamps. Old school. I'm aiming at once a month contact. I do hope it does not fizzle or flop or fade. I hope it just steadily flows along. Peaceful and certain.
IF I were a young girl, I think it would be wonderful to have someone, beyond family, that has absolutely no obligation to love or care about me and yet they do! I'm regrouping my life and figuring out how I can light the world, this next year, while mostly being home....caring about relationships with my family/friends is one of them, if not the main one and who knows maybe my only one! Now you know my plan for my 3 very youngest friends!
(my penmanship is atrocious and slow. I do want to get a fountain pen but I can see I'm nowhere ready for that feat yet. Anyone use an inkwell at school? Remember the bottles of ink with the little well inside? I guess I'll find out if they still make those ink bottles or do they use cartridges of some sort? Do they still use blotters?)
No comments:
Post a Comment