Friday Friends Apology Edition

(This is a re-print from a Facebook post on my timeline.  I'm placing it here as I believe it never showed up on FB.  Maybe I was in Facebook Jail?)

Friday Friends Apology Edition

It’s been more than six months now. It had been an eventful day. My daughters convinced me to go to Dallas to run a 5K with them. It was the second one of my life. I had run my first 5K with my daughters and I vowed that there wouldn’t be a second one. Daughters! Gotta love them.

After dinner we all adjourned to the living room. I knew something was up as the grandkids willingly went into the room, some with their boyfriend/girlfriend in tow and nervously sat anywhere there was empty space.

Then my daughters presented me with the booklet with my picture on the front of it. They had contacted friends of mine and asked to write letters to me for my 70th birthday. I flipped through the pages and tried to read the words through blurred eyes. Quiet settled over the room as a smile settled in on my face as I turned each page.

I don’t recall how the subject came up, but someone wanted to know a little about the letters. Rather than read the letters I recounted to my family my relationship to each of the people who had written and why they were special to me. Former classmate. Co-workers. Former students. Associates from church. Family. “Adopted” children and siblings. My voice cracked a few times and an occasional tear streaked across my cheek.

I don’t know why I picked up that little booklet again Wednesday night and thumbed through it. Now that I did it, I realize I had to read through it again.

Six months had passed and other things have happened in my life. There were trips, one with a grandchild and others for bike rides. There were trips to visit family. We experienced heartbreak in our home. We experienced blessings unnumbered. There were reunions with friends in our home and elsewhere. There were bills to pay, plans to make, obligations to keep, and adjustments to make in our new home. In the midst of it all, in spite of all the blessings and wonderful things that have happened in my life in the last six months I think I may have lost my way. In addition to the great and marvelous events in my life, there have been some deep concerns on my mind. In short, I’ve been a bit terse in remarks that I’ve made to people I care deeply about. One person referred to it as “mean.” It should never have happened. I have been most ungrateful.

And so, I read the letters again Wednesday night. And I must apologize to those I’ve lashed out and to others who perceived a darker side of me.

Here’s to you. Friends.