Reponde sil vous plait? In English means please reply...
I understand that many folks lead incredibly busy lives, or are in super-busy phases of their lives (such as raising very active kids, etc.), but I feel that we are in a very sad time when people are too busy to reply to someone who has taken the time to say, write, text, e-mail, facebook, leave a voicemail, or contact them in any other way.
I mean hey, somebody has taken time out of their day to acknowledge YOU, they were thinking of you today and made the time to let you know. Isn't that truly a precious gift, deserving of even the briefest of responses?
I know that sometimes I can be overly sensitive, but when someone completely ignores my attempt to acknowledge them in a positive way, I feel as if I've waved at them in public and they just pretended that they didn't see me and walked away a little faster without even waving back...it is hurtful. I know that there are times when I get busy and forget to reply too, I feel bad when I realize it, and guilty for being upset with someone else...
Sometimes, I get angry and swear that I'm done with "so and so"! But later when I calm down I remember my Grandma once mentioning how much my Grandpa enjoyed my letters, how he would re-read them and smile... I never had a clue! Grandma would write notes and send cards on special occasions and "just because", but Grandpa NEVER wrote, if she hadn't mentioned it, I would never have known that someone so very dear to me even cared that I wrote...
I understand that he probably only completed 8th grade and may have been self-conscious of his spelling or penmanship, and that being from an old German family affection wasn't really spoken of that much, instead it was shown in sharing fun and special times together, usually involving food and a lot of laughter!
I remember walking out to the garden and he would point to these little brown papery globes on these little plants, he showed me how to ease the papery cover back and pop the golden ground cherries out from their casing and into my mouth, still warm from the sunshine and bursting with sweetness! (My daughter grew a bunch last summer which brought those memories back with every sweet bite, I know I've shed a tear for every ground cherry she harvested, and there were an awful lot of them!)
I also recall catching my first fish with Grandpa, a beautiful little "sunny". Honestly, I thought that it was much too pretty to eat, but I couldn't be such a weenie and say so in front of Grandpa, he was proud of me, and I wasn't gonna mess that up by being a sissy girl!
Grandpa made the most excellent potato pancakes...each time it was a major event, (he could be a bit of a ham), I adored him! He would grate mountains of potatoes and fry them to crispy perfection, I liked mine with sugar sprinkled on top, Grandma still has his recipe, but it's him that I miss, they could never taste as awesome without him...
But I digress...my point is that we should all TRY to make that extra effort to acknowledge those we love/care about and let them know how special they are to us. None of us know how many years, months, days, hours or minutes we have left in this world, I don't want to be wishing I had written that note, or made that phone call, etc. I want to have another good memory to hold on to for the rest of my days!
Love isn't love until you give it away, so I'll keep sending my sappy notes and such, whether I get responses back or not... *virtual hugs & kisses*
"May your compassion reach out to the ones we never hear from."
~ John O'Donohue ~
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