163. Gracious Friends

Friends 0

I’m working through the hard years of my life on my Project 52 project. And it’s been great to get perspective, but it’s been hard, too. Last night I read lots of old emails from my ex-husband, and those emails are packed full of words telling me all the ways I was a terrible person.

Those lines should be stale by now — but today I’m feeling down on myself.

Then I happened to post this quote that says that sometimes we need other people to show us we’re lovable. And that’s where my gracious friends have come in – reminding me that I waited so long for my husband because I loved him and I wanted to give him every possible chance to change his mind.

I see all the things I did wrong with that entire episode. (And this isn’t a surprise — those are the things Steve pointed out.) But, my gracious friends are reminding me that they see it differently.

And that helps.

162. A Secondhand Compliment

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Today, at the Neighborhood School Readiness Team meeting, the organizer passed on a compliment. She’d been working with a youth services manager at another Fairfax County Public Library and mentioned the Fairfax City group. This other librarian said about me that I’m a rock star! And that I do great things as a librarian!

This completely blew me away. I honestly had no idea anyone would ever talk about me that way! (Yes, it also made me think some people don’t know me very well.) But most of all — It was good to feel like my colleagues respect the work I do. (Very good!) And it was sweet of the facilitator to pass it on.

161. Diversity in the Library

Libraries 0

At the Crazy 8s Math Club at the library today, we had ten kids. One kid was white. I didn’t ask to be sure, but I’m pretty sure we had kids of Asian, Arabic, Hispanic, and Indian descent as well. I heard one girl explaining that her parents were from two different countries, but I didn’t catch which one her father was from — the mother was from India. (The girl said this with a completely American accent.)

All the kids were happily playing together. I think a couple of the boys didn’t speak English real well yet, but they did know how to play with other kids.

It was just lovely to see.