{"id":268,"date":"2010-05-25T11:25:33","date_gmt":"2010-05-25T15:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=268"},"modified":"2010-06-08T10:32:17","modified_gmt":"2010-06-08T14:32:17","slug":"the-kindness-of-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2010\/05\/25\/the-kindness-of-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kindness of Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"

Susan Sweeney Smith, our major gifts and community outreach director, is currently on sick leave from the station. We hope to have her back at work in lat<\/em>e June. She asked me to share this essay with you. –Ellen Rocco<\/em><\/p>\n

The Kindness of Friends<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve been through a fair bit of health hell for several months now and it’s not quite over — close though.\u00a0 Many many people did lots of things to help me feel better — called, stopped in briefly, brought love tokens of all varieties, sent flowers, sent food, brought full meals, sent books–the stuff I consider loving and normal under the circumstances of illness, illness\u00a0that will, thankfully, ultimately pass.\u00a0\u00a0 It meant a lot to me to get cards every day for weeks and flowers every few days and to not have to cook a meal for three straight weeks — really amazing.<\/p>\n

Today, however was extraordinary. My friend, Miki Crary, took a day off from work (yes, one of those rare and precious vacation days) and came to my house with a trunk load of annuals and all of her garden tools — including a fabulously fun straw hat.\u00a0\u00a0 She worked in my gardens all day.\u00a0 Weeding. Relocating volunteers.\u00a0 Letting two snakes be there without freaking (something I could not have done).\u00a0 Putting my garden decorations in new and creative places.\u00a0 Cutting out dead parts of the perennials.\u00a0 She put in flats of impatiens (I have a lot of shade) and one geranium, “Just like the one I have in my garden so we’ll have two the same.”\u00a0 All things I can normally do without missing a beat — and truly love doing — and can’t do this year.<\/p>\n

And, she brought lunch.\u00a0\u00a0 I could do nothing to help except sit in a chair and point.\u00a0 I even went inside and took a nap in the middle of it all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I would LOVE to tell you in some eloquent but sparse prose what today meant in the grand scheme of life…\u00a0 but I don’t have those words at hand.\u00a0 What I can tell you is that this truly simple act of loving kindness meant everything good in the world to me today — and will mean the same to me all summer long as the impatiens bloom.\u00a0\u00a0 I probably will not garden much at all this summer — I’ll be better in short order but not doing things like gardening for awhile.\u00a0\u00a0 Although I love my garden, I’ll be saving up my energy for family, friends and work.\u00a0 Energy remains in short supply.\u00a0 The weeds can come and have a great year — it’s probably fair to give them a turn anyway.<\/p>\n

The gardens looks great today.\u00a0 They look loved — which they are — and I feel loved.\u00a0 Which of course, I am…<\/p>\n

I think Miki is rare and special and wonderful in my world.\u00a0 If you’re lucky, she’s your friend too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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