If we would see others as they see themselves, our shyness would soon become compassion. ~ Robert Brault

Oh, the gaps in my blog.  I wrote about having Amy over but I overlooked Pat!  I was sure I wrote about her.  Maybe I did.  Maybe, in scrolling back a few posts, I overlooked a blog post about meeting her.  I dunno.  I am so overwhelmed at times I just don't know.  I thought I had.  Ha.

But I can't let meeting her go by without telling you about her as well.  We have been blog friends for a few years.  And somehow the knowledge that she also lives in Michigan kind of pfoooooped in one eye and out the other as I read it.  But she's a Georgia girl originally and that's where I have always thought she lived.  Michigan didn't even register.  In this roller coaster year that I've been experiencing I haven't had the time or energy to do much blog reading and hers has been on sort of a hiatus for the past couple of years....real life interrupting and things of that nature.  So we'd kind of drifted.  I think what got us in contact again was she'd come by my blog or on Facebook or somewhere and found out I now live here as well.  So she got a hold of me and I called her and we found out we only live maybe 25 or 30 miles from each other.  Dear Hubby was off for a short hunting trip so I invited her over for dinner on one of her days off.  And we also had a wonderful time getting acquainted.  There's just something about a couple of women curling up on opposite sofas with their shoes off that brings out the heart-to-heart talks that I love.  And that's exactly what we had.  And we plan on getting together again sometime soon, too.  I am looking forward to that as well.

When I am looking for potential friends, I'm not one who likes to skim the surface.  I like to get to know the inner person, to learn what makes them tick.  I've always had acquaintances galore, but the ones who I've drawn into my circle of core friends, true friends, who've been with me most of my life, are ones I feel a kinship with that goes deep.  Ones I trust.  And I don't trust easily.

I think both Pat and Amy fill the bill.  I just have that gut instinct about them.

 My grandson Dylan is not a boy of many words when it comes to telling you about his day.  I pick him up from school.  I ask, "How was your day?"  He says, "Good."  I ask, "What did you do today?" and he shrugs.  "Do you like school?"  I ask.  He says, "Yes."  I leave it at that.  The most I've ever gotten out of him voluntarily was, "Boy, that school stuff is really tough!"  and when I asked him why he let out a big sigh and said, "Cutting with scissors!  It's really hard.  I go up.  I go down.  And it doesn't look very good."  "Oh, well," I told him, "it will come with practice."  He looked at me the other day and he said, "Gram, are you a thousand?"  "A thousand what?"  I asked him.  "A thousand years?!  No.  Why?  Do you think I look a thousand?" and he said, "Yes."   Gotta love him.

Everyone should take lessons from that child on how to make friends, tho.

In his universe, no one is ever excluded.  No one ever gets past him without him saying hi.  No one leaves him without him telling them goodbye.  He makes sure everyone is included in whatever he's doing.  If we take him to a place like Java Jungle the kids there are soon following him all over the place like he's the Pied Piper.  And he's kind.  He's compassionate.  He's drop-dead funny.  He will not get into the car at the end of his day or head out to walk across the field towards home without saying goodbye to every child from his class that he can spot.  And when he comes out of school at the end of the day and I watch his eyes scan the crowd until he spots me, when I see his face light up and he comes running towards me and practically tackles me with a hug, I just look at him in wonder.  I can't believe this beautiful little boy with a heart the size of the world is my grandchild.

I am awed by him.