I awoke to a “beep” and a red flashing light at 4:00 yesterday morning. I was sleeping so soundly, it took me a bit to figure out what year it was, let alone what planet I was on. I searched for the source of the flash. It was the control for the electric blanket. On this particular blanket, if the electric goes off while the blanket is turned on, the control flashes all the buttons red until you turn it off. A safety mechanism, I suppose.

The bottom line was, the power had gone out. Judging by how warm my feet were, I’d guess it wasn’t off for long. I picked up my phone to see if there was any kind of power outage notification and there was not. However, it wasn’t two minutes later the power went off again and this time it stayed off till 10:30. I went in the bathroom and turned the gas heat up just a touch and opened the curtain “door” to the living room to add some ambient heat.

The temp is heading south in a hurry in the next couple of days and we’ll be seeing lows in the 20’s. I went out to the cellar house to check the heat tape on the well pump (it was working fine) and I noticed a faint tick-tick-ticking sound on the leaves. I looked down at the dark wool sleeves of my Navy pea coat and saw…little tiny snowflakes! I was hoping to miss those for a while…but, there they were.

The snow didn’t last long. I ate my breakfast and took my tea to the chair by the window to prepare my knitting when the phone rang. It was my cousin and Aunt Rosie calling. What a joy to hear their voices! Our conversation lasted for nearly two hours. My Aunt Rosie is the last of my mother’s sisters still with us. When I told her I was at Grandma’s house, I could hear their love through the wires.

My aunt told me about the vivid dreams she’s been having about times long ago. She said they would make great stories, even if they were just her own. I must get her to tell me some of them before I no longer have the opportunity. I asked her if I could read yesterday’s post to her and she said yes. By the time I got to the end, she was crying and at first I felt bad that I had made my beloved aunt cry. Then I realized, those tears are good tears. They are not tears of regret. They’re not even necessarily sad tears. They are reminders of deep love and time well spent in the presence of loved ones. I was glad I got to share that moment with her.

Aunt Rosie was my champion when I was just a button of a baby. I remember her hiding me in the closet when I tore my mother’s book. She didn’t want me getting in trouble. She sent pictures of me as a little tot at her wedding. She helped Hubby #2 and me when we needed a little money to go to interviews for internship and residency. She was the one who met me in Charlotte to fly home for my mom’s funeral. We shared a double bed in the “Girls’ Room” upstairs at the farm. We laughed and shivered at the hundreds and hundreds of Asian lady beetles tip-tapping on the ceiling and vowed we weren’t staying another night in that house.

As we get older, our stories are sometimes all we have left of happier times…simpler times…times of “back home” and “remember when”. Without being dismissive of her feelings, I gently brought her back to happier memories. We talked for nearly two hours and by the time we finished, the light was getting dim. I put everything away and came to Grandma and PopPop’s bed to write this love letter to you all.

I love when my stories touch your hearts. I know then that I am doing what God sent me here to do…my life’s purpose. To bring you back to your own stories through the telling of my own. In this age of divisiveness, I am here to say, unequivocally…we are all far more alike than we are different. If we could just get back to the telling and sharing of stories and of love and laughter and fun…the world would become a much better place.

I hope you can reach out and touch people with your story today. Let us not waste the one big and beautiful life we have been given. When I look at this floor, I feel the heartbeat of every soul that ever walked on it. Sharing that can only raise us all up because…it’s nothing but love.

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“Let all that you do be done in love.”

1 Corinthians 16:14 ESV