Sandy's Stories Two

Acts of Kindness:

My friend reached out to me the other day, asked how I was and said she’d love to give me a visit. She texted me on the way and said she got my favorite tuna fish and asked if I wanted some red wine. I was kind of confused about the tuna fish, I thought “did she just pick up a can of tuna at the grocery store?” She got to my house and said missed me since I have not been around that much this summer. Turns out she drove all the way to a different town and drove to a restaurant I loved, to get me one of my favorite salads. She said she wanted to surprise me! Talk about going above and beyond the duty of friendship. To receive something like that felt amazing. It’s important to let yourself be the one getting the gift sometimes - don’t forget that!

Everyone Has Fear:

All people have triggers for fear-based emotions. The most important thing is to just be with that emotion, but don’t give it legs. Let it out. You fuel it by telling a story. The thing to do is to acknowledge the emotion and let yourself know it is alright to feel that emotion, but that emotion isn’t you. Realize it’s not who you are. It is what you are feeling and it will pass. For me certain fears that I didn’t feel safe to deal with are coming up and causing me to have more triggers than ever before. Learning to feel them but not let them consume who I am has helped me tremendously.

Where to Draw The Line:

It was an average Monday night, like others. Trying to go to bed early because it’s a school night, getting everything organized for the next day - no biggie. Then...I saw my son take a big, startled jump in the air. What was it? Well you know, just a strange cat that is not ours on our dining room table having some snacks! Now, I am all about sharing - but this is a whole different level. You see, we have a dog and three cats. If you know me you know how much I love animals, but my husband takes the cat thing to a whole new level. We keep our basement window wide open so the animals can come in and out whenever they want. Critters, bugs, animals, you name it, can get in. A few years ago there was a whole family of raccoons living in the basement, I think mom gave birth down there...don’t worry, we found a happy farm for them (but that is a whole different story). Back to the neighborhood cat - this was the first time we had a stray come upstairs and chow down in luxury. It’s a whole other story about why they are fed on the dining room table...ah, yes - we love our animals.