Chuck,
Hey dude!! I sent the jet but they got drunk around Denver and ended up in Tanzania!! Go figure....
BTW, great pictures of Family, really enjoyed putting a face to the name, we continue to grow......
Selfesteem is such a fragile thing. One day all is fine and then the next, all is lost. It doesn't take very much to help repair someones esteem, a smile, a kind word, but all true repairs must come from inside the person. If you are feeling a little low, look around you and find someone who is even lower, help them rise to your level, and as if by Magic, you will discover the you are both several levels higher and your selfesteem is getting the repairs it needs...from within!
Todays Story
I was an ungainly child -- well-loved by my family, but made fun of
often by schoolmates for being too big, a klutz, and oblivious of social
skills. I also had some physical ailments in first grade, and long after
those problems were fixed, my classmates remembered that I was a pariah
and treated me with derision. I had seriously low self-confidence and I
deeply feared bringing unplanned attention to myself.
I was, however, generally normal, and as such an enormous crush on
"Tim", a fellow eighth-grader. I considered him far "out of my league"
but I was smitten. Tim, naturally, didn't know I existed, and while I did
my best to maximize those moments where we passed in the hall, I was
acutely afraid of being "found out" and ridiculed for my feelings.
One day I went on a ski trip to Maple Ridge. Imagine my surprise when I
discovered that Tim had decided to do the same! I spent the first hours
catching glimpses of him while I rode the little two-seater chair lift
back to the top. I thought him, of course, the picture of grace.
Then, in the afternoon, I was in line three people behind Tim, holding
my breath from being so close to him, and he turned around and asked me,
"Hey, you want to ride up together?" I stammered assent and he scooted
back in line to my spot. My heart was pounding. We got to in position for
the next chair to sweep us up. But in my love-struck confusion, I stood
too far to the left, and the chair caught me square in the seat of my
pants and threw me sprawling on the ground. Everyone in line laughed, and
the operators stopped the lift and hauled me out of the way. Then the
lift resumed and Tim zoomed off to the top of the hill without me.
I was devastated. My eyes were welling with tears. When I got to the
top of the hill, I waited a few minutes to compose myself and to give him
plenty of room to get away from me, then skied back to the bottom,
hanging my head. Yet, who fell in line beside me but Tim, saying, "What
took you so long? I've been waiting for you so we could ride up
together." I could hardly speak. We got to the front of the line; I
successfully negotiated the chair, and we rode to the top together,
chatting about heaven knows what, while my heart filled with gladness and
gratitude.
Middle school is not where miracles of the heart are all that common.
Tim continued to not "know I existed," and my crush passed on as they all
do. But Tim, through that one act, repaired years of social fear and did
more good for my self-confidence than he could ever have imagined. We're
in our thirties now and I hope, wherever he is, he's living the good
life.
Jennifer Schrader
Have a great day all !!!!!
wb |
