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.