A gesture's worth a thousand words........

A couple of Saturdays ago we spent the day with Silas and Cora while Tim and Ally and friends journeyed to Guthrie for the Gentlemen of the Road Concert.  We always have such a great time with these sweet kids, playing, building (and knocking down), coloring, reading, making forts out of furniture and sheets.....y'know, the stuff of life.

Since it was going to be long day, with 'dad and mom' not expected back till after midnight, Tim's mom, Charlene, came over when it got toward evening and we all enjoyed dinner together and planned to do bath time with the kids and then we'd leave and she'd stay till Tim and Ally arrived.

After Cora's bath and after she was asleep, Silas and I went out front to play as the sun was disappearing behind the rooftops. We amused ourselves for a good bit by drawing a hopscotch frame and playing for awhile and then Silas climbed atop a gravel pile in an adjacent yard where a new home is being built.  We talked through some pretend scenarios (pirate on a ship, king of the mountain) and generally had a very sweet time.

When it was time for him to go in to take his bath, he paused by their beautiful front garden and broke off a stem with a lovely purple blossom on the end, handed it to me and said, "This is for you, Noni."

For a few seconds I couldn't speak, so many things rolling around in my mind and my heart.  I'm sure there was a time in my life when I might have said,  "Oh, honey, don't pick these, they're just for looking at out here."  And for the times that I may have said that to my own precious children, I do ask your forgiveness.

But I knew then that this was a time to RECEIVE and I DID.  I thanked him and told him what a treasure this was and how special it was to me.

So I kept it in a vase for a few days, dried it between sheets of waxed paper and recently took it to Kinko's to have it laminated, along with a slip of paper documenting the event.  The young man at Kinko's was reticent: he could tell it was of great value to me and he was hesitant to attempt the process for fear of the outcome.  But I told him that his 'best would do just fine' and I was willing to take the risk.  We were BOTH pleased with the outcome!

The result is beautiful bookmark (can't wait to show it to Silas!) that I think I'll treasure forever (maybe even as long as I treasure Silas's words and the look in his eyes when he handed it to me!)