Yesterday would’ve been my Pop’s 75th birthday. I stayed with Mom most of the day, and then joined my “second family”, if you will, for dinner at an Italian restaurant that is
(unfortunately) closing in a couple of weeks. Barry, Nate, and Chanel arrived before Erika, and I had already put our names in for a table for five. I was told the wait would be at least a half an hour. The place was packed. After we were seated, the service, due mostly to lack of staff I believe, was quite patchy and slow, but it gave us all an opportunity to hang out and visit. I had the cheese tortellini with alfredo sauce, which was excellent. Hillary got off work later than expected, but came to join us. Erika, the infamous “chair thief” as she will probably be forever known at the restuarant, borrowed a chair from a neighboring table to provide a seat for Hillary. We were confronted by a wait staff woman and Erika got the hairy eyeball from the older lady taking names at the front door. We simply explained that we had another person coming, but that didn’t stop the hairy eyeball, haha! I found it quite humorous. Once we had finished and managed to get a few boxes and the check, we decided to go to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. Barry was able to steer me in the right direction as far as chocolate ice cream was concerned and the five of us (Hillary had headed home) sat and had ice cream together. It was great! I thanked them all while we were eating and told them I loved them. Barry and Erika both responded, “We love you, too.” After we had finished our ice cream, everyone gave me a big hug and we parted ways for the evening.
This was a very powerful gesture of the strength of human relationships to heal grief, pain, and damage to the soul from those inevitable and unexpected tempests of life, and a testament of Heavenly Father’s love for me in providing me relationships with such great people – faithful people who are willing to reach out and embrace those in pain so that laughter and joy can be experienced once again. I genuinely had a great time with my friends, whom I love dearly. They are family to me, and in the eternal spiritual scheme of things, are truly family. I am blessed to know the Smiths, and I have always felt that way about them. They are very special people, and I asked God that He give them a special blessing last night after our evening together was over. There are genuinely great people in the world, and when the chips are down, I’m glad I have a family of those people to lean on. Hopefully they know that they can lean on me, too, in times of need. I can provide precious little in the way of temporal help, but spiritually, I can bear a lot with the help of the Holy Ghost. I have been told that I am good at comforting others, and I know that the comfort I give comes from my faith in Jesus Christ because I always ask Heavenly Father to give me the words and the ways through His Holy Spirit in all things, that His will may be done.
Today is Mother’s Day. Make sure you tell your mom, whether she be with you still on the earth or has moved on in her journey beyond life, that you love her. Tell those you love how you feel every time you get the opportunity because you never know when death could take their mortal bodies from them. Have a great Mother’s Day, and tell somebody special that you love them today!
CLIMBING 4 THE REST OF US 