A Precious Moment

I love kids.  I always have.  When I was a little girl in grade school we had to dress up for career day.  My friends dressed up as nurses, doctors, firefighters, dancers, astronauts, zookeepers—all kinds of exciting things.  But I didn’t want to be any of those.  I already knew what I wanted to be when I grew up: a wife and a mother.  I still want that.  It’s a life full of fun and excitement, challenges, passion, giving, and unconditional love, and I want it more than anything else in the world. 

Until I do get married and am a mother to my own children I’ve picked a career path that will have me surrounded by kids—I’m so excited for it!  I also have a few friends who are mothers so whenever I get to see them I get to be with their sons and daughters and I love that too.  Children warm my heart and I can’t imagine not having them in my life.  Since I’m around kids so often I’m sure I’ll have a few blog posts that describe my moments with them…and here’s my first.

Yesterday was Good Friday.  To honor the day my family and I do not have work, but instead of sleeping in that morning I went to school to meet with my Old English professor about my term paper.  As I walked into his office I looked around and grinned to myself.  Like my bookshelves at home his are also lined with toys—but his toys are knights in shining armor riding on horses.  You know you’re in good company when your professor keeps things like this in his office.  Anyway, as I was waiting for him to finish his phone conversation, I heard the clip-clop of little booted feet coming down the hall.  I peeked around the corner of one of the bookcases to see who was outside and it was one of my friends from class with her four-year-old son.  He is seriously the sweetest little boy I have ever spent time with—and he was wearing the red boots from his Halloween costume!  Of course that made me smile even more and I knelt down to give him a hug.  We all three talked outside in the hall until our professor finished his phone call then he ushered us inside. 

My friend told us that her son wanted to meet our professor and so, clutching his mom’s hand, he shyly introduced himself.  Our professor grinned and then introduced himself, asking: “Do you like to play with toys?”  The little boy nodded, “Yes.”  And our professor said, “Me too.  But you know what’s sad?  I really don’t have much time to play anymore because I’m so busy.”  He got up from his chair and picked up from the top of his bookcase one of the knights in shining armor.  “This is one of my favorite toys that I don’t have time to play with anymore.  I want you to play with it for me.  And you know what?  This knight doesn’t even have a name yet so you get to name him.”  Then he gave the toy to the boy, whose eyes were so full of pure wonder and happiness that it made my heart ache a little bit.  It was so sweet to see our professor connect with my friend’s son in this way and it seriously was the highlight of my whole day and one of the best moments of the semester.  Even now when I think about it I smile.

Children find pure happiness in the simplest of things and this is part of the reason why I love being around them so much.  Their precious happiness and delight is infectious and it warms my heart and makes me just as happy.  Really, what’s not to love?

<3 

Friendship

I work with my family and this is awesome because I love them dearly and I’m very close with them all.  It’s so fun to be able to see my Grandpa every day and I’m blessed to have him in my life.  He knows me well—he can look at me and he can tell how I’m feeling in that moment.  It’s like he knows my thoughts.  I must have had a certain expression on my face this morning because he looked at me for a long moment, got a mischievous twinkle in his eye and then said something that made me burst out laughing.  He said exactly what I needed to hear in that moment to lighten my mood.  I honestly don’t know what I’d do without him.  Grandpa is a true friend to me, as is my mom and dad, Grandma, brother, my uncle, aunt and my little cousins.  And I started reflecting on why this was since I’ve been thinking a lot about friendship over the last few months.  

I’ve come to realize a lot of things over the years about friends and what makes a friend a true friend.  A true friend loves unconditionally.  A true friend is loyal.  A true friend is intuitive and doesn’t take advantage of you or manipulate you in any way.  A true friend doesn’t betray you.  A true friend respects you for everything you are and doesn’t try to change you—encourage you to be a better person, yes, but not try to manipulate and twist you into something you aren’t.  A true friend listens.  A true friend wants the best for you, always, and is a positive influence in your life.  A true friend isn’t jealous of you.  Of course we all have tendencies to be a little envious of our friends sometimes.  That’s just human nature.  We all experience the kind of wistful envy of wanting what the other has.  When I experience that wistful envy I allow myself the fleeting thought and then I make the effort to move past it.  I’ve known people who did not move past the envy and allowed the green monster to fester.  If envy is allowed to fester in one friend, that friendship becomes infected.  How can you be a true friend if the friendship is tainted?  I don’t think it’s possible.  You can make all the effort in the world to be a good friend to that person but if there is jealousy festering in the other person then you can’t call them a friend.  You just can’t.  Eventually the jealousy will dominate and that person will end up making the conscious decision to hurt you in different ways.  When this happens they are no longer giving you the respect you deserve.  I’m not saying that jealousy and disrespect are always linked, but most of the time these two things are closely intertwined. 

It is a person’s actions that show you who they are as a friend, not their words.  They can say that they are your friend, but you’ll know by the way they treat you whether it’s true or not.  Then, knowing what you know, it’s up to you whether you’re going to keep them in your life or acknowledge that the friendship has run its course and then slowly let it fade away.

Knowing what I know, I’m making the best effort I can to be a true friend.

<3