sonrisa

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I actually got some pretty nice Christmas gifts this year. Not that that's highly unusual--although I was rather amazed at the amounts of expensive chocolate my students gave me (my family enjoyed it!)--but it was one of those years when I could tell people weren't just getting gifts to check me off their list, they were actually thinking of me.

I got one gift about four years ago that was like that. It wasn't at Christmas. It was early March, just after the guy 'd been thinking about for months asked if I would date him. I was in my dorm room when one of the upperclassmen, brought it in. It was from Mike, and it was a single blue rose in a blue vase. I don't know how he got it blue, but he knew I liked it and so he surprised me with it. Not a big thing, but it expressed that he was thinking of me and that I was special. We only dated a few months (still friends) but I still have the rose. It was a gift that stood out.

I received another one of those this year. Last winter was a hard one for me. I was dealing with some weird things, emotionally and spiritually, and the dark of the winter months affected me like I never realized it could. Though most of those battles are well past their turning point now, lack of light still brings back that shadow of internal darkness.
When I moved to Illinois, Katie and I looked at a bunch of apartments and chose a model together, but as far as picking our speciic building, we just had to circle a number on the complex map. And there was only one of our model left, so we didn't have much choice! However: our apartment does not have white walls like the rest of them. i'm not really sure what color they are but it's kind of a neutral with a shade of tan and a touch of yellow. Not enough color to overwhelm the room, but enough that even when outside is dark, inside always looks bright and warm. And, i am not entirely sure how this happens, but my room and the living room get full light almost from sunrise to sundown.
A little thing, okay, and maybe I'm the only one that can understand why it's a big deal. But my house is light! And I am convinced that God gave me that because He loves me.

posted by kathryn @ 4:18 PM