All you need is love
(I started this on Thursday morning. I am finishing it at Portland International Airport on Friday night.)
Yeah, I am feeling a bit Beatle-y today.
Wednesday night at Ignite Portland I saw Liz Kimmerly give a cool talk about getting over yourself. OK it wasn’t really that, it was called “Dare to go where you fear” and all you really need to know is that she hauled off to Afghanistan with a hundred bucks in her pocket and when she landed at the airport there was a plane already on the runway. One that had been SHOT DOWN by Al-Qaeda and they couldn’t afford to move it off the runway. She gave a very cool talk about doing and having faith. It made me realize that with all the drivers cutting me off and general all-around assholery in the world I really should stick to my “glass half full” outlook. I find a lot of times I let that slide in favor of the knee-jerk reaction to flip someone off or immediately believe the worst about them.
So I went and checked out her blog and saw a post about hugs. OK It wasn’t hugs, it was about unconditional love.
It was late Wednesday night as I watched it, still kind of buzzing from the love I’d gotten at Ignite (SO many thank yous and hellos and how can I helps and good jobs I didn’t know what to do with myself!) and I read about hugging and how the touch was what made all the difference in this boy’s life. Suddenly from out of nowhere a memory sprang to the front of my brain. It was 1999 and Mr Fishbones and I were not yet official or planning it but we’d been together about 4 years. His sister had a baby and I went to Seattle (where she had him) to do family type things. His sister already had another daughter who was about 7 or 8 at the time. When I showed up at the hospital and she saw me it was for the first time in quite awhile (they moved to Alaska when she was about 3). She barreled down that long straight hallway and I kneeled down to hug her and when she got there she knocked me completely over and loved every minute of it. It was awesome to have someone be THAT excited to see me. Later that day she said to me “I know you are not Missus Uncle Scott but can I call you Auntie Verso anyway?” And I told her that was just fine. It got me another hug too! I think what really made it stand out for me was the total acceptance. If you know me you know I’m big on “family on your terms” so for her to decide she wanted me to be her family was a VERY good feeling.
It was a really nice memory. I love hanging out with kids and I’m the first one to dig in the dirt or break out the Legos or talk Spongebob so I have had other experiences with younguns, but that one will always be near and dear. She’s older now (gasp! teenager!) and probably would be fatally embarrassed if this story got out, so I have done my best to protect her identity. I’d like to think even if she squirms a little now that someday she will look back on that same day as fondly as I do.
2 Responses to “All you need is love”
camikaos says:
June 20, 2008 at 7:21 pm
that is such a beautiful thing to share and now I am misty…
have a great trip!
missburrows says:
June 20, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Firsties!! Ha! I found it, even though you told us the wrong address! Ha!
There is nothing quite as wonderful as a hug from a child. My niece is now 13 but still permits me to address her in public and even stand next to her, so you never know!