Nightly Gathering

Open Thread Post 33

Grateful. Very grateful. If you read last night's post, you'll have seen that I was very down. I was mad at myself and facing natural consequences of making a mistake I have literally made dozens or maybe even hundreds of times. One of the comments to that post was from Jill, the longest term close friend I have - going on 50 years! I decided to text her this morning after seeing her comment and vented just a little. Her replies to my texts and commentary really helped. Thank you.

The other two people who commented were also extremely helpful. I only know them from this blog, so I don't really personally know them, but each were so encouraging and loving and I greatly appreciate their words. Thank you!

Do you see the “magic” of that? Oldest friend and newest never even met friends? And I don't even hesitate to call these people I've never personally met “friend” now. What is a friend?

And that doesn't take away from all the people who read it and didn't reach out. A few felt the push to comment, some didn't. If you don't feel the push, niggle, or anything, then you don't. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. Life.

In separate instances, two other people randomly reached out to me today. One was my brother. Not the oldest who has consistently checked up on me, but the one closer to my age. He's been thinking about me and offered an ear if I needed one. Thank you.

The second floored me. This is a woman, 15-20 years older than me who I used to work with. One of her granddaughters is Morgan's age. We have not seen each other in a long time, but usually daily we play ‘words with friends' together. I obviously wasn't playing for a good week or 10 days after Morgan passed. My first day back, I let her know in the little chat bubble why I'd been missing. She of course offered her condolences. Well this evening when I signed on, she chatted that she thinks about me all the time. Really? That was so nice to know, and to tell me? Thank you!

But I still think that if you get that inkling or whisper or niggling that tells you to reach out to someone in particular, you should, because where did that thought come from? Everyone likes to hear that they are being thought about, whether grieving or not.

So many times I have NOT listened to that little niggling when I've thought about past people because I'd think people will think I'm weird or something, contacting them after a long, maybe really long, silence, and for no particular reason. Now I’m going to say, “so what?” If you're reading this and I have your personal number or email, watch out because one of these days I'll just say “hi, I'm thinking about you.”

These words can make a difference in somebody's life right at that moment. I'm going to try harder to listen and then reach out if “called.”

Thank you ALL again!!!!

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