The Long Conversation

I was involved in another long conversation tonight.   Have you ever had a friend or friends who were going through something exciting, anxiety provoking, frightening or saddening that was so forceful a situation that it couldn’t be blocked out, had to be thought about all the time?

Death of a family member or friend is one example—the feelings are so strong, the thoughts just swirl and swirl around in your head and you can’t get away from the impact the change in your life is causing.

I have two friends who are in the middle of one of these types of situations.   And while they have a lot of support to help them through it, the retelling of the story to new people takes time, especially if the story needs to be told from the beginning.   And particularly if the story is being told by a storyteller who doesn’t want to miss any of the points.  

I’ve heard the story, was involved when the story was happening originally and have been talking about the ramifications and repercussions since Sunday.   But tonight I was out to dinner with some friends who had no idea—so we started at ground zero again.  

A five-hour dinner to discuss and my listening skills were strained (I have poor listening skills to start with).   But the talking was helpful.   Sometimes we need to get things out to process them.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has a Lego advent calendar.   There was a little bag in the little cardboard section of the calendar with small pieces.   My son put them into a train engine by looking at the picture.   He’s pretty good with pictures alone, commonly not needing step-by-step instructions for smaller models.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has a Playmobil advent calendar.   For the first day in December and here introduction to advent calendars she had a mini figure to put together of a lady ice skater including little ice skates that fit over the feet.