I never post on Sundays.
As I get older, I rarely post Mother’s Day musings.
I’ve learned it’s a day fraught with emotion (not all of it happy) for many people.
Today I’m doing both.
I had an interaction with the Tornado on Friday which simultaneously took my breath away and sparked me to realize it’s *exactly* what I wish for everyone.
Allow me to commence navel gazing back up and explain.
We were walking home from school together. She was a few steps ahead of me and I listened as she sang softly to herself.
After a bit she stopped, turned to face me and said:
I don’t really like to sing in front of people, but I like to sing in front of you because you make me feel comfy.
I didn’t respond—I was busy pondering her choice of the word comfy–so she continued.
Comfy means you feel like you’re always at home. You make me feel comfy.
With that she turned back around and continued the few steps left to our front door.
For the rest of the afternoon I thought about her words.
I mulled her choice of the word comfy and considered the many positive connotations it had for me.
That night, as she readied for bed, I shared with her how special her words were.
You telling me I make you feel comfy is the best gift I’ve ever received. That’s the nicest thing anyone ever said to me.
(In her inimitable eight year old way she just shrugged and said: “Well, it’s true.”)
All yesterday the five words remained in my head.
You make me feel comfy.
I couldn’t place precisely why—but they were the five I needed said at exactly the right moment.
For the first time I understood people in my life who’ve said to me:
This isn’t it, but I’ll know it when I see it/hear it/feel it.
Editors seeking revisions of articles—no sense of what they wanted but certain it was *not* in front of them.
Friends looking for that!perfect!outfit!—no idea what they were seeking just positive it was NOT what they already owned.
I never understood the phrase because I couldn’t comprehend how they didn’t know what they needed, yet *knew* they’d recognize it when they found it.
I never understood until I had the conversation with my daughter.
- You make me feel comfy is what I needed to hear yet had no idea until after I’d heard it.
- You make me feel comfy is what I want for everyone yet had no idea how to put into words until she did for me.
To hear it from someone.
To feel it about someone.
To bastardize an Alex Whitman quote:
You make me feel comfy is everything I never knew I always wanted.
The Tornado presented me with the drawing above as an early Mother’s Day gift.
I think it was her way of reminding me how much I’d loved what she’d said.
At eight she doesn’t yet grasp the power of her words or how challenging it can be to find the comfy in life.
A joyous Sunday.
Have a fantastic whatever-day-you’re-reading-this-on.
Today. Everyday. I wish you the comfy.