Silver and Gold

Jeanna G3 Comments

Make new friends, but keep the old. And the same goes for yourself: love yourself now, but don’t forget to give props to the O.G.

I had actually started a letter to my younger self about a year ago, but got distracted while adulting. In this season of gratitude, I was reminded that it’s important to follow through on those thank you notes. Henceforth, I will catch up on some overdue correspondence with myself, both the silver and gold versions.

I find inspiration in the quote from Lalah Delia, “She remembered who she was, and the game changed.”

Dear future self,

Be grateful for the childhood you had, for the foundation that your life was built upon. You will be hit with hard times, but you will already have everything in you that you will need to get through.

Dear Little Jeannie,

Thank you for being someone I want to return to. Thank you for your light and your strong sense of self, because that makes finding you easier, and I want to be like you again. Thanks for not giving up when times got tough.

Dear future self,

Promise me this: now that you’ve made all the mistakes, you won’t make them again.

Dear Little Jeannie,

No promises, but I’m sorry I got lost and thought I needed to be someone different. You were right.

Dear future self,

It wasn’t your fault.

Dear Little Jeannie,

It wasn’t your fault either.

Dear future self,

Life is short. Play more. Don’t forget how much you love to do things. Don’t forget, when you get confused, just listen to the music play. And don’t forget that God knows you, and still loves you. Oh and hey…don’t stop believin’.

Dear Little Jeannie,

Thank you for your optimism, your playfulness, your curiosity and imagination. Your idea that life is a game, and that you’re going to win, has helped the journey to be entertaining, challenging, and worth continuing.

Dear future self,

Continue to be an altruist, and remember to help those who need it most.

Dear Little Jeannie,

You’ve got so much love.

Dear future self,

Don’t forget to save some of that love for yourself.

Dear Little Jeannie,

You’re so smart.

Dear future self,

You’re right.

Pen Pals

Jeanna GLeave a comment

I mentioned in a previous post that my first best friend moved away when I was in second grade. Sadly, we did not have any contact information, so we lost touch and I never saw or heard from her again. When my daughter was in second grade, her close friend also moved away. Covid had just entered our worlds, and her friend’s family made a very quick decision to move to Florida to be closer to their relatives. She did not get a chance to say goodbye, and I felt so sorry for her.

Fast-forward two and a half years, and my daughter finds a note in the mailbox from that same friend. Apparently they were driving through town and thought to pass by and leave a note with their new address and a request to be pen pals. We were so excited!

I had several pen pals when I was young. Most of them were friends I met at summer camp, one of which lived in Spain. My friend, who I only saw in the summers when we went to Pennsylvania, is still my dear friend, and we still send cards to each other. My grandma was my pen pal for several years. I even had a pen pal from Germany. I’m not sure how that came about, but I’m pretty sure it was along the same lines as a chain letter. Remember those? People who participated were supposed to get so many in return, but that never happened for me. What a gimmick!

As a blogger, I obviously like to write, but mailing letters seems to have become a thing of the past. When emails were invented, I sent them off to friends and family, but now email is associated with work, so I don’t write many for fun. Texts took over next, but those aren’t even close to writing or receiving a letter. When my daughter got the request to be a pen pal, I was so excited for her. We both love getting things in the mail. Maybe I should start writing letters again, but who would write back?

The Days of Our Lives

Jeanna G1 Comment

I read today that John Aniston recently passed away. He played Victor Kiriakis on NBC’s Days of Our Lives for a very long time. This news flashed memories from childhood across my mental screen. My grandma started watching the show when it first aired back in 1965. She was a housewife, and everyday she took an hour off from the cooking and cleaning and child-rearing to enjoy her program. When I was in Kindergarten, my mom ran a daycare out of our house. I attended the morning program at school, so I was getting home as she was putting all of her charges down for a nap. This was also right on time to lie on the couch with my mom while she watched the same soap opera.

Both my grandma and mom worked their tails off, and they deserved much more than an hour-long break everyday. I work a full-time job outside of the home, so I don’t get to follow in my matriarch’s footsteps and watch tv daily from 1-2pm, but I deserve a break, nonetheless.

I heard a devotion the other day that really struck a chord with me. It was about the sacredness of the mundane (I apologize I do not know the title or author of the devotion). We can practice this by slowing down, and in those moments we have an opportunity to “discover a spark of joy,” even in activities that we do as routine or out of necessity, and not necessarily out of spontaneity or want.

Every day I’m rushing around and thinking about what’s next, instead of being present. My grandma and mom were wise women to know they needed to stop and take a break every day, for themselves. Sometimes we need to escape in order to be more present. And the author of the devotion is right about slowing down, because we all know that, “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.”