Last week, I sent the following note, via email, to David's little brother, Brent, (who could not afford to absent himself from his after school job on the coast to celebrate Passover with our family in the desert):
Hi Brent,
Just a love note to say how much you were missed, this week, when our family celebrated Passover. After flying home, Barry mentioned that you and David are having dinner with his family, tonight, making my smile grow even wider than usual! An Easter surprise for you and your family to enjoy may arrive a little late as your holiday snuck up on me after Barry's gang and David flew home, last weekend.
Feel our love across the miles!
Annie
Today, I received this reply from Brent, who was eagerly absorbed into our family soon after he and David were paired up by Big Brothers and Big Sisters when Brent (now, eighteen and college bound) was a boy of eleven:
"I truly miss you guys💜 I really wish I could've celebrated Passover with all of you, as I did, last year. I LOVE YOU VERY VERY MUCH!"
As with most heartfelt reactions, I replied to Brent's out-pouring of love with no conscious clue that this next insight-driven train of thought would flow out of the intuitive portion of my mind, one word at a time, as naturally as ducks lining up in a row, and not until my whole thought process had marched across my screen did my conscious mind absorb my message to Brent in its entirety ... I love when that happens:
Hi Brent,
When a young adult is beginning to carve out life's independent path, as is presently true of you, it's important to train both eyes toward tracking each short range goal that lines up, directly ahead, so that by the time you reach my age (when many of life's most enriching long-range goals have been achieved) you, too, will freely choose to pass the ball of leadership to the younger generation in favor of embracing your Golden Years by relaxing into your primary role as chief cheerleader in charge of cheering on your team of offspring to work individually and together toward attaining each next first down until another game-winning touch down on the field of life has been won. At this point in our lives, you are hard at work, gaining yardage on the field of life while I, who have climbed up most of the steps in the stands, have come to see how a growing sense of objective hindsight serves to expand a person's ability to oversee the game of life as a whole. And having consciously chosen to acknowledge my on-going need for personal growth at each stage of life while working proactively toward making gains in self improvement, I (having opened my mind to gracefully embrace the best of what this last stage of life has to offer while bracing myself for the reality of irretrievable loss that lies inevitably ahead), believe that, over my lifetime, I've earned the right to enjoy peace of mind, which offers my new found sense of wholeness many opportunities to sit down, relax, smell roses planted in the past and bask in the sun while absorbing an ever deepening awareness of a job well done except for those times when fate offers me reason to grow attentive to need to tackle a new task of my own while continuing to cheer on my beloved team of sons, made up of three seasoned players (and now, one rookie), each of whom pauses to wipe the sweat of a hard day's work from his brow, followed, occasionally, by enjoying a well earned, momentary 'R and R' before re-committing his heart, mind and spirit toward setting and achieving each next set of heartfelt short-range goals ... and ever since our family chose to embrace you as one of our own, we've all applauded your inner drive to fulfill your responsibilities at home, school and work, suggesting why we can't all be together, every time a family gathering has been planned, and whenever that's the case, along with missing you, we admire the strength of your commitment to focus most of your time, energy and positive attitude upon creating a personal and professional path alongside each of our own.
Feel the depth of my admiration, respect, and love, every day,
❣️Annie
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