Joyful Transformation

People are really different. Did you know that? I wonder sometimes how one or more people form friendships or relationships. I wonder how people look past the idiosyncrasies of each other long enough to look under the surface and know someone else. I think I must be a hard person to get to know. I think I have a pretty high fence built around myself and only occasionally will I let it down (I think it works like those windows on chicken houses..) But I also think it is my loss that I don’t open up to people more, not only to let them know me but where I can get to know them up close and personal. I could physco-analyze myself and probably spout out some pretty good reasons why I don’t trust people enough to let them close to me. I could tell you of some personal hurts and disillusionments, but really you don’t want to hear it, and if it is in the past, it becomes only an excuse.

I can tell you that I do value the relationships that I have. I spent a wonderful weekend with Terri. Sunday morning Jenni asked us how we became friends, and really neither of us has a story for that. We have known each other a much longer time than we have been friends, but I am glad we found each other. She has been just what I needed at a time in my life when I desperately needed to have someone I could call in the middle of the day with the mundane, the ridiculous, or the times we I needed affirmation that I was not the horrible person that I sometimes felt that I was. Truly I don’t know how I would have gotten through this last year without bending her ear. She has also been my cohort on a Spiritual journey that I think we both have grown from. Wow, Terri, this was not supposed to be about you.

Today is my good friend Kay’s birthday. Kay is the sweetest, kindest person you could ever know. She is so different from me. I like to be in charge and to be heard. Kay is content to follow quietly and to be a great encourager. Kay is not the cynic that I am. She still has such a beautiful unbiased view of the world. She sometimes brings out the protector in me. I just feel that she is more vulnerable to things of the world than I am. I know that I wish I were a lot more like Kay. She makes me a better person by watching her and by receiving her quiet encouragement.

Saturday was my sweet husband’s birthday. Yes, I was gone for his birthday, but he was sweet enough to allow me to go. He has always not only supported my independence but encouraged it. Sure, he would rather have me around more, (I think), but he also wants me to do the things that make me happy. I have already told you how great and wonderful he is. I have told you of his patience, his intelligence, his ingenuity and of his love for me and our children. It is great to be married to the person who knows you better than anyone in the world and loves you anyway. I just hope he doesn’t occasionally shake his head and say “why am I married to her?”

People really are different. I am grateful for that. It would be hard for me to be friends with someone like me. All the people in my life enrich it in different ways. I think I would be incomplete without any of them.

Thank you God for the different sides of you I can see in the important people in my life. Help me to show them you in my life as well.