Love Thy Neighbor

Today was the boys first day back to school, but as luck would have it Droid had to stay home with a stomach bug. 

While I was whittling my way through the mountain of laundry, which is once again mingled with my Little Princess’s toys from her room (I have to find a lock for the laundry shoot!)  I received a phone call from the school letting me know that poor little Oz was in the nurses office complaining of a headache and, what else, a stomach ache.

I jumped in the car and picked him up.

While driving home from the school I saw someone off in the distance standing in the road.  As I got closer they started waving a cane. 

I slowed down, and when I got close enough to see that she was an elderly lady, I rolled down my window and stopped. 

She was so old.  She had beautiful silver hair in two short braids.  She had a loose house dress on, and only a shawl around her shoulders, and it was 30 degrees outside.  “Can I help you?”  I asked.

She told me that she went out to get her mail, which she was still holding close to her, and she must have locked herself out of the house.

I asked her which house was hers.  She hesitated and started looking around. 

I then realized that was confused, and might not actually remember which house was hers.

I asked her if there was someone I could call for her, and she told me about her daughter working in a medical office, but it was too far away to call her.

Just then a neighbor lady came walking out of her house.  I asked her if she knew Grandma, or where she lived.  She said she didn’t, but saw her standing in the road and came out to see if she could help. 

The neighbor asked her which house was hers, and the sweet little Grandma said, “I don’t know, I don’t recognize her.” 

The neighbor didn’t seem at all surprised by her reply, and gently  put her arm around her shoulder and said, “It’s much too cold for you to be out here.  Come inside with me and we’ll get you warmed up, and we’ll call someone who can help you open your door.”

I told the neighbor “Thank you for helping.”  And slowly drove away as I watched the neighbor patiently walked beside the old lady, as she walked slowly and shuffled her feet toward her neighbor’s home, leaning heavily on the cane.  The neighbor kept her arm around her shoulders.

My heart was braking for this sweet old lady.  She looked a little like Laura Ingalls must have when she was an old lady.  I immediately thought of my Grandparents, and great Grandparents and the amazing lives they lived.  I wonder what this woman’s life was like.  I’m sure she had some amazing experiences and stories. 

And she’s probably forgotten most of it.   

My first instinct was to be terribly sad for her situation.  But something else struck me as I drove away.

The world is full of good people.

I was happily surprised to see this sweet neighbor come out too see if she could help, but not only that, the compassion in her voice and her manner was so touching. 

She is a modern day “Good Samaritan”.  And because of her, I know there are others out there who are also more than willing to lend a helping hand, and look out for their neighbors. 

Jesus told us to, “Love thy neighbor as thy self”.  I know that if everyone abided by that principle, the world would truly be a heaven on earth.

I’m so grateful for all those who love their neighbors… they make my heart dance.

I'm Small I Know...

There have only been a few people I’ve told about this blog.  I’m mainly keeping it for myself, and if others come upon it and enjoy it then I’m doubly blessed… to know that my heritage has not only helped and inspired me, but also inspired others is a great feeling.

Today I received an e-mail for my Sister in Law, who I adore.  Because we share such similar interests, and she shares my joy of writing I thought I would tell her about my blog, and get her overall thoughts on everything from the background (which I’m going to work on) to the writing it’s self.  Her opinion is invaluable to me.

Her e-mail touched me, and taught me, and reminded me of so much.  Below are portions of that e-mail:

I don't know why I'm telling you this instead of posting it on my blog and sharing it to the world (well, just the handful of readers who care to listen to what I say). Maybe it's because of your "Dance" blog and your happy outlook towards the day-to-day that I'd thought I'd share.

I've always, always loved the song "'Give' Said the Little Stream" that along with "When I Am Baptized" are my two absolute favorite Primary hymns.

While playing the hymns in the play room while the children were watching TV, I came across "'Give' Said the Little Stream" and of course, I always have to play it. The words inspire me.

"Give", said the little stream.

"Give, oh give", "Give, oh give"

"Give", said the little stream as it hurried down the hill.

I'm small I know but wherever I go, the grass grows greener still

Singing, singing all the day

Give away, oh give away

Singing, singing all the day

Give, oh give away

As I read the lines over again, this time without my poor attempt to play the music, tears came to my eyes.

I then whispered, "Though to the some I'm nothing, I still have a big impact in this world (as a wife, mother, friend, child of God and example of our Lord and Savior)."

How important we are to our Heavenly Father! Just as our parents didn't have a "favorite" child, nor did one receive more gifts that the other, the same is with our Father in Heaven. We are important to Him. In this world where you are only important if you make money, have a healthy/lean/tan body, have the right hair/clothes/makeup, to the Lord He doesn't care. I am no better than the homeless man trying to make any money possible so he could eat or provide for his family. I am no better than the murderers, robbers, rapists that are in jail. And then again, I am no better or less than celebrities, millionaires, the Pope. Though they are small, like me, they are still important and still deserve a place within Heaven.

Today was one of those days that I worked so hard to please and have fun with my kids, while still trying to be Mom.  I made them Cinnamon rolls,

and cleaned the kitchen, we had a good Family Home Evening and the kids were actually pretty respectful this time.  Afterward I played Apples to Apples with them,

and it was so funny because Little Princess would just pick a random card out of her deck, and it was almost always hilarious.  Like one time the word was "filthy" and she put out, "my past"!  Maybe she was thinking of diapers???

Afterward I through them all in the bathtub (sorry, no pictures of that) while Doc “studied” in the other room for a big test coming up,

and I did the dishes… again. 

Today was a good day... but I'm so tired, and it's one of those days that even though I know I did a lot, I just don't feel like I did enough.  There is still laundry to do;  

and the basement needs to be picked up from my Little Princess and my Little Charge playing.  I also let the boys have a friend over to play with today as well.  I'm just feeling irritated with myself that I can't seem to get IT ALL done… at least not in one day.    

This e-mail meant so much to me.  Sometimes I feel like my life isn't important unless I'm trying to make a big impact on the most people... but I think I need to learn that sometimes the biggest impacts come from small actions, toward small people.

Thank you Sis so much for sharing this.  You always teach me so much.

Crazy Day That Ends With Love

Today started with a rocky start.  Doc got up at 5:00am for another 30 hour shift… and he forgot to reset the alarm clock for me and the kids to get up for church.  Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but today my kids decided that they were going to sleep in. 

My Little Princess came into my room this morning asking for a cup of chocolate milk, and I rolled over to see what time it was, fully expecting to see a 6, or 7 to be there.  Nope.  9:40!  Church started at 9:00! 

I would have been tempted to skip, but I am the primary music chorister and I didn’t have a substitute lined up… on top of that, because it’s the new year, the kids are all going into different classes, and have new teachers, and my Little Princess is moving out of nursery and into Primary.   I didn’t want her, or me, to miss her first day as a Sunbeam.  Plus… I had just finished sewing a new dress to wear, and darn it… I wanted to show it off.  J

Front

Back

I jumped out of bed, and yelled to the boys to get up and get dressed.  Miraculously they didn’t protest.  They jumped up and threw on their church clothes while I dressed my Little Princess in the first dress that I saw in her closet, and gave her a cup of chocolate milk for breakfast… breakfast of champions I know.

Then I ran to my room through on my brand new dress, and a pair of sassy boots, and frowned knowing I just didn’t have time to put on my make up… shoot, I didn’t even have time to put my contacts on.  I ran out the door with glasses on, kids in tow, lesson in hand (grateful that I had stayed up late finishing it up the previous night), and jumped in the minivan.  It was cold.  I had made sure that the kids had their coats on, but I didn’t take the time to grab mine. 

I was freezing.

We got their just in time for primary to start.  Yeah for something going right! 

Little Princess was so good sitting so still in her new little primary class.  And Oz moved up to the senior primary.  I can’t believe how much my kids are growing.

After church today while watching America’s Funniest Home Videos, Little Princess sat in my lap and grabbed my checks, put her face right in front of mine so we were looking eye to eye, and she said, “I love you so much!”

I said, “I love  YOU so much!”

Princess said, “No, I love YOU so much!”

And we went back and forth for about 3 minutes.  Tickling each other and laughing as we competed over who loved who more.  I will hold onto that memory forever I think.  I hope she still loves me when she’s 16.

I know I’ll still love her.

Growing Pains

Happy New Year!

I have to admit that today I am so tired!  I didn’t go to bed until 2:00am last night and then my poor Little Princess woke up 3 times with growing pains.  I went to her room and rubbed her legs as she cried, “Mommy, I have an ouchy!” 

It broke my heart.

I rubbed her legs until she fell back asleep, wishing the whole time that I could take her pain away from her.

I remember my Mother rubbing my aching legs in the middle of the night as I woke up with growing pains.  Somehow her touch lessened the pain for me.  I hope that my touch can help take the edge off of my children’s pain.

I was thinking last night while rubbing her growing little legs, that there are different types of growing pains. 

The physical growing pains that wake up little children in the middle of the night as their bodies grow.

And the mental.  The emotional maturing of a person as they grow through different phases of childhood, teen years, and the many stages of adulthood. 

Most times we grow subconsciously, unaware of the subtle changes taking place in our lives. 

Other times the change is  sharp, obvious, amazing, and sometimes… painful. 

Although when in the midst of the painful phases of change, we wish that we could “sleep” through it, I’ve come to realize that we learn the most from the pain.  We learn to sympathize with others going through their own growing pains.  And although we can’t take that experience away from them, we can let them lean on our shoulders, our own experience and comfort them with the knowledge that “this too will pass”.  And they can emerge on the other end stronger and taller than before. 

I’ve come to believe that every experience in life matters.  The good, and the bad.  It’s what we choose to make of the experience that determines the final change that takes place in our lives.

Am I going to let the growing pains of life bring me down?  No.  I may cry a little while walking through them, but all the while I have faith that the Lord won’t ever give me any trial that I can’t handle.  He knows me better than I know myself.  And I have faith that He will rub my legs while I live through my growing pains.

And I’ll wake up a better person than before.