9.22.2014
NAILED TO THE WALL OF MY HEART, and causing me to run a few more miles:)
I really don't have a bunch of loves. My repertoire of things that rev my engine, juice me up, or nail a decree right to wall of my heart are few and far between. It's not that I don't get excited or things don't ever reach me. It's just not things that are the letters of love that speak to the language of Nancy.
Because of that fact, buying a gift for me is probably horrific. No, it is mystifiably hard. What do you buy someone who just doesn't really want or have a desire for things? People who are close to me usually acknowledge their struggle. A few even over acknowledge my simplistic un-gift loving self by either not buying me a gift (which is a gift to me), or giving me something that they know I will use - like a container of old fashioned oatmeal [one of my favorites in life since I eat it every day]. Those rare few who really get me know that it's words I truly love. They are the best gift you could ever gift me with.
Adding your own verbiage to a Hallmark standard is far more gratifying to me than a present in a box. To find that path to my heart, though I really have little I want, takes a lot of love and thought. How do you nail it with someone who just doesn't get a buzz over gifts?
I didn't check the mail like normal when Friday night rolled around and I entered the house from work. Friday night marks the end of another work week and sometimes my normal routines fall to the way side. It wasn't a night of have tos, but a relaxed if-I-want-to flow. It's that pauseable period of time where your mind and body adjusts to the end of five days of work rush and transitions to another pace. I was there.
When the mail was finally retrieved from the front porch it included a small box. I recognized the return address, the handwriting, the style of wrapping paper that held the contents of the box. It wasn't my birthday, my anniversary or a monumental anything. In spite of nothing, my daughter had mailed me something in a small rectangular box.
I knew by the shape of it, and by running my finger over the bottom of the box, it had a lid. That lid gave away the box's contents immediately. Before I even unwrapped it, I was moved to tears. This is what was underneath the wrapping paper. She added her own verbage to the box of my favorite dark chocolate sea salted caramels.
I stood still and let the magnitude of her gift wash over me. Thought not a big flashy gift, it was a purposeful know you and wanted to meet a desire you had kind of gift. She had heard me tell her in random conversation over the past few weeks that I had a hankering for one of these puppies. It wasn't a big conversation, just words tucked in around various other subjects. She heard. She knew. She loved. She took the time to buy 6 dark chocolate sea salted caramels and mail them to her mom who lived 4 1/2 hours away. There was no reason. It was just because she loved me and wanted to show me in a nail the decree to the wall of my heart kind of way.
Over and over I said out loud, "Look at what she did for me! She listened to obscure words, made a mental note. She knows me like we know the look of the street we live on - a familiarity and soul sitting way. Look what she did for me!" It came out mixed with tears. How could 6 pieces of chocolate with a hand made note taped to a box mean so very much?
I texted her the pics above with my acknowledgement of the bigness of what she did for me - that she nailed me. Her gift and deliberateness to deliver something so simple in such a powerful way had swept my heart, "OMG! I cried and smiled and keep smiling that you did such a sweet and special thing:) But, there are two slots in the box open:) LOL I love you! You made my day! Thank you love. Why you love so big I do not know:)" Her response, "I only bought six! You're welcome! I love you! I love you SO!"
Sugar wasn't the real gift. Deliberate love delivered in a small rectangular box was.
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