Year Of Gratitude| Soul Magazine
But I Was Saving it!!
Year of Gratitude Challenge
There is an ever-popular story in our family of when my sister was little. It happened years before I was even thought of. I was never thought of because I was an “oops” baby. However, that’s a story for another time.
One day my mother had taken my sisters to get ice cream. The two of them were in the backseat of the car, ice cream in hand, when the commotion started. My middle sister was about 3, and my eldest sister, around 6 years of age, began squabbling, so of course, my mother inquired what the problem was.
“Her ice cream is melting!” replied my eldest sister. Turning to my middle sister, she said, every so lovingly I’m sure, “Hurry up and eat it, stupid!” My mom looked back to find my middle sister, holding her cone while ice cream dripped down. To save a disastrous mess, my mom did what any good mother would do. She reached back, grabbed the cone, and licked it.
Screams of agony erupted from my middle sister as she cried, “Nooooooo!”
“What is wrong?” My mother asked. With tears streaming down her cheeks, my sister replied, “But I was saving it!”
We all continue to laugh at this story to this day, but there is something so special about the innocent thinking of a child who just wanted to hold on and save that ice cream for later.
I think of my favorite books. The ones I fall in love with. Wanting to get to the end to find out what happens yet yearning to savor every moment of the characters’ lives. The ones where I don’t want to say goodbye because these fictional characters have become my new friends. I just don’t want my time with them to end.
This recently happened to me on Medium when I found @Love and James Edward Young. I’m not sure exactly how I found Love, but I was immediately drawn to her upon reading one of her posts. She talks about how she lost her son when he had just turned 18. She tells of how she kept a journal to document every time she saw a sign from him. I felt this immediate connection to Love as if we had been friends our whole lives! I just had to reach out to her.
As I began scouring her page and delving further into her writings, I found a letter she had written to James. Her and James developed this beautiful friendship through Medium, where they became virtual pen pals. He even proposed. Once I began reading their letters, I was hooked.
So far, they have 41 letters in which they go back and forth, sharing life stories, music and so much more. I started around letter 38, but then, the rule follower in me just had to go back to the beginning and start at number 1.
For the past week, it has become a habit for me to read these letters at night before going to bed. This may have been a bad habit as sometimes I just don’t want to put them down. I often save them until after I have read other members’ stories on here, but Love and James are like my ice cream! I get so excited to reward myself with a taste of letters every day.
This week I am grateful I have found Love and James. And even though they are my ice cream, there is nothing plain vanilla about them. They are more like a sundae made with rocky road, swirls of flavor and filled with nuts, then topped with whipped cream and a cherry. (Love sure does like her cherries).
So, thank you, James and Love, for being my ice cream. Thank you, @Soulmagazine, for this challenge! Thank you, Medium, for creating this happy place I can call home.
Love has an amazing challenge of her own this year which I plan to take part in. Check it out here.