All Things Great and Small

So many things in our daily lives make a difference. The little kindnesses our friends show can add so much hope, so much joy and over time they are small jewels that we gather in the treasure chest of our heart. To some people giving comes easy, it flows from their hearts like fresh water and seems effortless like the air they breathe. My friend Brenda is such a person. I have known her for 17 years, and with the start of spring cleaning, I cannot help but notice all the mementos my house has that are testimony to her caring friendship. There is a small troll doll going back to a costume prize at a Halloween party, there is the wall clock in the kitchen, the matching wall candles, a Tinkerbell blanket, a baby blanket with baby chicks that always reminds me now of our sweet dog Laffie who passed away 4 years ago, as she loved sleeping on it. There are the pictures of Brenda and I holding the beautiful cake she had made for my 50th Birthday, there are little baskets in my bedroom, kitchen towels, scarves, socks, hats, hairpins and a nice black poncho I wear to church on cold winter days. There are wind chimes, and the strawberry plants in the green house that give us sweet fruit each year, there is the lavender coloured Azalea bush. All daily items, but together they add up to a friend with whom I can share the daily ups and downs of life. She is the sister I still get to have even though both my younger sisters died many years ago. She is the friend I can go shopping with for clothes, or gifts, or go out to lunch with. She always remembers me on Mother's Day with a bright, heart shaped balloon, she is there to talk to about everything and anything. We can laugh together, and grief together, understand and share together. She is family in the best possible way. She is a friend like that to all her neighbours and family, tirelessly helping any way she can with everyone around her, even when she herself is tired and not feeling good. Her warmth and energy are contagious, no matter what she is dealing with, she always stays upbeat and positive, and the few times she does get discouraged or mad, her sense of humour always wins in the end. I have a cute little jar that she gave me that says : " Everyone should have a friend like you." I often think how in my heart it is much more that everyone should have a friend like her. Brenda makes me feel connected, grounded, real. She is so easy to talk to, tackles problems head on and is rarely discouraged by life's challenges. She willingly shares her time, care, food, laughter, talent with everyone in her world. I am glad she is my friend. My world is a little warmer, a little happier because of her friendship and I hope that my friendship in turn over the years has warmed her world and her heart as well. Home is where the heart is, and my heart feels a little closer to home, even though my home of birth is on the other side of the world, because of Brenda's always welcoming heart, as welcoming as the cute butterfly decoration she added to the beautiful strawberry plant she gave me with my balloon for this Mother's Day. The butterfly will join the adorable three little china kittens she surprised my kitchen window sill with when we came back from a trip to Nevada one year, just to make me feel welcome home. I smile each time I look at these kittens as I will smile each time I look at my new pretty butterfly hovering happily over my strawberry plant.