I spent last weekend in Utah while my family tried to get by without me. (They thrived of course.)
While I was there I met these two lovely lambs and we took a blurry self-portrait. (I offered to hold the camera since I was the newbie, but I was so excited I couldn't hold it still long enough to get a decent picture. I'm publishing it anyway...proof I am friends with blogging celebrities.)
On Monday morning I remembered how to do this. (And had Rachel take this picture as proof for David that I look hot in any weather.)
It was a fast trip at the end of a long week, and by the time I arrived home on Monday afternoon I was exhausted and had only enough energy and willpower to start one load of laundry and make a lasagna for dinner. Everyone stepped over my suitcase and the other ten piles of laundry I left on the floor, sat at the table for dinner, and told me how good it was to have me home.
Tuesday meant digging out. And class. And by two in the afternoon I was more overwhelmed than when I woke up. Which is really saying something.
I knelt down in my sewing room.
Help me, I said.
The doorbell rang.
That was fast, I thought.
I was secretly hoping it was my Aunt Jane in her rubber gloves, who, I hear, is better than any emergency response team when laundry and filthy bathrooms are on the line.
It was the UPS man. He wasn't wearing rubber gloves. He didn't want to stay and help me muck out the sink. He left his package and ran.
I opened the box.
Inside was a tiny miracle made out of colored paper. And just the help I needed on a difficult day.
My sister, Emily, did what I could not and made me a paper chain counting the days til summer.
I stared at the chain, at the box, at the postage, at the thought, at the grand gesture. And then stretched it out across my family room.
I thought, That is a lot of scissors and glue, That is a lot of time and energy, That is a lot of love and encouragement.
And then I thought, I can do this. And I went and put another load of laundry into the washer and found the courage to clean out my suitcase. Which is is proof that simple is not insignificant. It is also proof
that (once again) my sisters are among the best blessings of my life,
that even when I'm drowning all I really need is a little encouragement (I'm not saying no, Jane)
that when all else fails (especially me) kindness doesn't.
Mercy me.