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Mary McKnight's avatar

Like Suleika's mom, mine taught me the art and joy of people watching and imagining their lives. I think in retrospect, Mom was teaching me that everyone has a story and that if we embrace that, our hearts can soften...and so mine does. Lindsay, loved your prompt and here is my response: Some years ago, when I was teaching 4-year olds in public Pre-K, I had a new student and through "the grapevine" (every school has one) I found out that the father had recently been released from jail, and the mother, recently put in. My knee jerk internal reaction was to dread our first encounter...but then I remembered "Everyone has a story-embrace and let your heart soften". The next morning (the child's first day of school) there he stood, holding his dad's hand. Dad was highly tattooed, a look of defiance but behind those eyes there was the pain and worry of every parent, releasing their child to a total stranger. I walked up to them with broad smile that came from a place so deep and wonderful inside me, put my hand out to the dad who gingerly put his out in return. I held his and told him that I would love and care for his child and along with that, would help him develop the beautiful gifts he had uniquely to offer this world. I then said to the dad, "I look forward to also seeing you every morning and afternoon. Isn't it wonderful that our paths have crossed". The dad looked slightly perplexed but was there every afternoon and morning. One morning, he (the dad) greeted me with a smile, that I imagine he had had buried long ago...we embraced warmly in a spontaneous hug and he thanked me for making him and his son feel so welcome. Isn't that what we all want? To feel welcomed from the heart? From that day forward, we hugged each morning...different staff members asked me if I wasn't afraid of him, beings that he had been to jail. I felt no fear and told them so...and shared the lessons my mom had shared with me so many years before. Everyone has a story.

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Sandra Yudilevich Espinoza's avatar

These early Sunday mornings have become a time to wade into other peoples lives, to take in the happenings being shared. A weekly occurrence, if you will, ever since I discovered Suleika‘s work, the work born of her life’s experience. these Sunday mornings have also become an opportunity and a prompt to reflect on my life; on the things that are brought to the fore of what I’ve read. 

Friday the 13th 2022, with mercury in retrograde, I had an opportunity to do some thing I had always wanted to do: “make a party“ that was at once classy, fun, and spared no expense. The party, In the form of a dinner, was for One of my closest and dearest friends, a person who I met when I first moved to Massachusetts 12 years ago. To celebrate his retirement and move to Florida at the end of the month. I picked a lovely restaurant that happened to be across from the ocean, invited the people that would mean the most to him, created a menu with the restaurant owner, and waited for the party to happen. 

It was amazing to see what could happen when one provides the setting for people to break bread, have drinks, and celebrate another human being. It was such a lovely setting, the flowers I brought blending so well with the lovely and delicate flower settings that the restaurant provided. The weather was clear and warm, sunny, and the ocean providing a lovely background. In one word, gracious. What fun to be a hostess at a party that I could afford to “do it right, classy” as my friend Robert had taught me.  Put another way, he would tell me, “don’t do it if you can’t afford to have it be classy.” Whatever that means.

As I reread my post, I’m thinking, “sounds frivolous” against the background of what manypeople are experiencing, Including myself. However, it is in fact in the same vein as The topic of Suleika‘s post today. Today is my 72nd birthday, and the experience of giving the party was one that I had always wanted to give myself. I hosted 18 people at a restaurant dinner celebrating the life of another.  without ulterior motive. Happy birthday to me!



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