What made me happy today ( actually yesterday) #10

I am on 10 months long service leave and yesterday one of my staff came to visit me.  That was sweet enough but she brought a present for me too.

The thing is people can always say things that inside they don't really mean, or they say out of habit.  But when someone comes out of their way on a rare day off to see you and bring a gift that is ALL you, you get a feeling that is indescribable.  It is a validation that you mean something to that person.

The gift was a plant.  She remembered that I prefer live ones to dying cut flowers.  The plant was a cyclamen and I had commented a few times at work that I was trying to create a woodland feel under my giant walnut tree and was planting bulbs and cyclamen there.  The final tick was that it was a purple cyclamen, purple being my favourite colour. 

The point is that after she left, and I add here that I had made an incredible cake for her from scratch (and she knows I am not a keen cook), I took that plant and set it down under the still leafless tree and amongst my other 2 purple cyclamen.  You see the thing is I had planted 3 purple cyclamen but the middle one had died.

So, seeing this new plant still in its plastic pot breaching the gap is what gave me joy.  Joy that someone cared enough to make careful choices about the gift, and joy that the gift came at the right time.

So, sometimes we just need to wait and the holes in our lives will be plugged somehow.

As I sit here half way through my leave and wondering how I will ever go back to a difficult day job I realise that there are some people there who miss me (this is a big deal for me) and also that I have more friends than I realise.

It was a very good day.  I still feel the warmth of it today.


Thank you to Amy, who probably does not know how much SHE is missed.