The Little Kindness

Sometimes it doesn't take much to make someone happy.  A casual smile as a stranger walks by, telling someone they look nice today, or just sharing your french fries.  When I was in elementary school, our guidance counselor was the master of the little kindness.

I don't remember her name, but I do remember what she looked like.  She was a plump, tall African American lady who had so much love, she made sure every student from kindergarten to fifth grade felt it.

I don't remember what you would do to get sent to her, but you never, ever, felt like you had gotten in trouble or there was anything other than something special happening.  She would talk to you very kindly about whatever it was that got you there in the first place.  Sometimes it was important things that she knew how to best address with a child, sometimes maybe you were just having a sad day and she was the person who could make you feel better when your teacher had twenty-eight other students to take care of.

You would go into her office and have your chat.  And when you were done, she took out a plain roll of masking tape and she would wrap a loop around your finger.  She would tell you that she loved you and every time you looked at that piece of tape you would remember how much she loved you.

A piece of tape.  That's all it was.  But if you had a taped finger you would show it to your friends, touch it and remember all day long how special you were.  Then you tried to make the tape last for as long as you could, through baths and sleeping until it fell off.

Her name is so close, and yet I can't remember it.  But I won't ever forget her.

The Big Boy Update:  oooce, oooce, oooce.  Uncle Jonathan brought over spicy chicken McBites tonight.  My son wanted one.  And he got one.  He ate it and then turned towards the closed door to the room saying "oooce, oooce, oooce" and trying to get the door open.  He was trying to go to the refrigerator and was asking for juice.  He was also hanging his tongue out to try and cool his mouth.  Uncle Jonathan shared some of his coke with him, which with the carbonation was another interesting experience.  After his mouth cooled off some, he went back to playing but kept his tongue hanging out for a while until all the hot was vanquished.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Pulling up?  She can pull up on her knees now and hold on to things.  But she still can't crawl.  She spends lots of time frustrated while standing on her head and feet and does a sort of Spiro-graph pattern of sitting, trying to crawl, sitting, trying to crawl, etc. in a nice rotational pattern.  It is amusing.