Edges and Corners

pixy.org

“As the years have moved on, our explosions have become far less frequent as we have learned to live with each other, accepting each other’s edges and corners.”-Two-Part Invention by Madeleine L’Engle

I love that phrase “edges and corners”. We all have them. At times I have been like a dodecagon (yes, I looked it up), all full of edges and corners plus prickles like a porcupine. But, as time wore on, I was more like the glass I ordered a few weeks ago. I bought a piece of glass to put on top of my great-grandmother’s sewing machine so I could use it for a table. They beveled the glass so the edges would be smooth and polished. I think Chuck and I both became more rounded and mellow over the years. We argued less and gave more than took from each other.

It is rare and wonderful when family members are best friends. – A Grace Disguised by Jerry Sittser

Chuck and I were best friends. I count my brothers as pretty good friends, too.

When I’m Seventy-Six

One of my favorite chapters in All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is the one titled “Old Ladies’ Resistance Club”. These women were so much more the than the Red Hat Society.

“Seventy-six years old,” she whispers (Madame Manec), “and I can still feel like this? Like a little girl with stars in my eyes?”  

With a birthday in my very near future and a husband who just hit 60, I have thought a little about age this week. Some say it’s just a number. You’re as young as you feel and all that. I think Madame Manec felt like a girl with stars in her eyes because she had a purpose, a renewed reason to keep going.

I hope that when I’m seventy-six I will still have a purpose; a reason to joyfully greet the day.

Letter To My Younger Self

I actually wrote this a year ago, but was inspired today  to pull it out and dust it off.

Me at 14 with my brothers

Dear Fourteen Year Old Self,

This will be short, because I know you may not want to read a long letter right now. I know you are feeling fat, but I can tell you, you WILL lose that weight and keep it off for years. Just continue on being your happy self and a good friend to the peeps in your life right now. Some of those kids will still be in your life when you hit your 50s.

Work on your poetry – some of it is good and some of it stinks, but it will be a help to you when you are feeling blue.

It’s easy now to say not to worry so much about what others think, but it isn’t easy to put into practice at 14. Don’t do anything that would cause people to truthfully talk bad about you, though.

Don’t go looking for love too soon. It will come, I promise you. And it will last for years. Don’t give away pieces of yourself that you can never get back.

Love, Me (or you, or whatever)