I just can't go on without a word even though I have at first been stunned speechless. And I do want to go on. To move past and forward. Maybe with my eyes averted somewhat, and holding on to a friend's shoulder along the way as we saw young innocents do. I am wanting to touch many shoulders today.
After all what else is there to do? For the present I can only reach out in consolation and feeling to try to compensate for an act for which there is no possible compensation. But as the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay said, "love is not all." Love may sometimes be a cure, but it is most often just a balm to reduce the sting and pain and get us moving again. And just for this day, and perhaps many days to come, that may be enough.
I take solace in friends and family, and in the millions of good and kind-hearted souls that are also everywhere with us in troubled times. Our society. And I want to pass on an email from a stranger that I got today that made me feel good.
"Hello,
I’ve been on a mad quest to find the Meta Given’s soft sugar cookie recipe from the volume 1 cook book that my grandmother has.
She asked me to make them for her for Christmas and sadly, after finding her cookbook and putting all of the pages in order, I found that 2 pages were missing, 493-494. I told her that I bet the recipe I was searching for was on one of the missing pages. When I found your website and the recipe, the ingredients sounded just like what I was looking for and then I saw another picture on your site showing the next page with Holiday Cookies as the title. I looked in the book and sure enough! The Holiday Cookies are listed on page 495. She’s 90 years old and this is probably going to be our last Christmas with her as her health is failing so I really want to be able to make these for her and I want them to taste like when she made them.
I wanted to thank you so very much for posting the ingredients.
I was emailing in the hopes that you would be willing to email me the directions.
I’ve printed out the ingredients.
I just want to be sure I mix it correctly and bake it at the right temperature and for the right amount of time.
I thank you in advance and Merry Christmas!
Kellie"
Such a small effort to make when so much matters for which so little can be done. But a welcome task nevertheless. Thank you, Kellie, for asking me to do something for you. It's always essential, but it now feels so urgent that we help to find the missing pages for one another. . . .
Love and Blessings,
Very well said, Jacqueline. How great that have the recipe for that lady.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings so eloquently articulated!
ReplyDeleteWell said.
ReplyDeleteSo well said!! Thank you!!
ReplyDeleteThank-you for sharing and helping out a blogger friend. Tears welled up.
ReplyDeleteAmen.
ReplyDeleteMary
Very nice, indeed.
ReplyDeleteWith you in spirit,
M.
There are no words that one can write or say , that will ever remove off the pages of these last few days..The horror of the poor little angeles and brave teachers.
ReplyDeleteSomething is terribly wrong with society.
I wrote on my post.
guns should be banished..
attitudes changed.. teachings ..
I have cried so much these days.
you wrote this post so well Jacqueline..
god bless.
am glad that the lady found your post with the recipie.
she found her missing page.
val
This was a very needed post. We are all grieving, and all need comfort and love. Thanks you. and I'm so glad you could help that woman with her recipe. What a lovely story. :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is a lovely post, and speaks so eloquently to the sorrow we all feel. I love that you thanked Kelly for asking you to do something for her. I think we sometimes forget that when we ask others for something, or allow others to give to us, or do for us, we are allowing them the blessing of giving. It took me a very long time to learn that--I was very good at giving, lousy at receiving. Finally, I realized that I wanted all the blessings of giving to be MINE--I was denying others that joy. Your post was a reminder of that. Blessings
ReplyDelete"merci"..for there are no other words.....
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, Jacqueline! We all have so many questins without answers. So many missing pages. We must look for the good, the pretty, the peace where we can find it and go forward. Blessings, Leena
ReplyDeleteI'm still in shock!
ReplyDeletetot
Hello Jacqueline
ReplyDeleteYou have stated this all so beautifully. We are all still in the frozen state in this house, with candles lit and speaking softly.
The request for your recipe is timely and beautiful.
Have a glorious week
Helenxx
taking a minute to do something for someone else gives us "connection". What a sweet email, so glad you could do even a small kindness for another person; a stranger. that's what is so often missing in desperate people's lives. Christmas blessings, J.
ReplyDeletegosh..now you have me all teared up.
ReplyDeleteSimply beautifuly put...without knowing sometimes we can be a blessing to others!! through simple things.
and me too...I wish we could all hold on to each others shoulders right now
We are all connected in grief, thank you dear for posting this lovely letter, some cheer is much needed now indeed. :)
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Jacqueline,
ReplyDeleteAs I read your post, I felt your hand on my shoulders, dear friend! Thank you. You are such an instrument of His peace!
Fondly,
Pat
So well said. That was sweet about the cookie recipe. Thank-you for sharing your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteHugs, Liz
Here is a shoulder if you need one, Jacqueline. And I agree... helping one another is why we're here. There is no consolation in being isolated.
ReplyDeleteThis is so poignant. When so many of us are experiencing such sadness, and frustration, and helplessness - just to hear a sweet story about someone doing something nice. I mean really, what else can we do, we can't fix it, all we can do is good and kindness in this world. Sometimes it's all about the small things when everything else is just crazy...
ReplyDeleteCindy
It's easier to be kind isn't it?
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