So About That Ring

It's official ... I am a failure as a Ghee. Really. Seriously. I am the worst Ghee that ever lived. For all the packages of goodies I've sent up to Canada over the last two and a half years for Coraline and Amelie, I'm sure forgetting to send Easter gifts for them this year will haunt me for the rest of my life. What makes it even worse is that when we Skyped last night, Coraline said, "Ghee, da mailman not bwing me a pwesent fwom you in wots of days." Yep, it's official alright ... I am a complete and total failure as a Ghee. In my own defense, however, I thought Easter was still a few weeks away rather than next weekend. And for those of you who are readying your fingers to type a message telling me I still have a whole week, it takes 2-3 weeks for a package to get to my grandgirls and it costs a small fortune to send it. There's no way around it ... I just have to take the fall on this one, admit I screwed up big time and pray that Coraline and Amelie will forgive me when they get their next surprise present from me in the mail ... trust me, it will be a "There's tons of stuff in this package because I feel so guilty for not sending you girls something for Easter" package.

There's something extra special about getting an unexpected gift in the mail, whether you're a little kid or an adult, it's just cool to receive a gift you didn't know you were going to get. I still remember how excited I would get when I would get a card in the mail from my grandma ... it was always heavy because Granny had carefully taped 100 pennies to the inside of the card. It was only a dollar, but it felt like a million bucks to me because I never knew when to expect those cards from Granny ... they were always a surprise. When I think back now about my Granny cards, I feel like they always came just when I needed them most ... I'm not sure why I feel that way, but it seems like Granny somehow knew when I needed to be reminded of how much she loved me and that she was thinking about me even though there were many miles separating us from one another. It was those two things that really made those cards from Granny so special to me ... it wasn't the pennies taped inside that made the cards special ... it was their unexpected arrival and the love they represented that made them so extra, extra special to me.

Not long ago, I lost a ring that a friend had given me several years ago. I hate it when I lose something, especially something like my ring because of what it meant to me. It was a silver pinky ring ... a simple, inexpensive little ring that's only real value was the emotional and sentimental place it held within my heart. I was really upset when I realized my beloved ring was missing, and I turned my house upside down searching for it while hoping with all I had in me that I would find it ... but I didn't. I only told one person I had lost my ring, a dear friend from back home in Tennessee. Though I suppose it shouldn't have, it surprised me when I received a package in the mail a couple of weeks after our conversation. The return address was that of a jewelry company, and I was more than a little puzzled as I opened the padded envelope since I knew I hadn't ordered anything online. Inside was a ring ... a small silver pinky ring to replace the one I had lost ... a simple, small silver ring that has already claimed its own special place in my heart.

This new ring is quite different from my previous one because it has the following words etched upon its surface ... "To thine own self be true." The friend with whom I shared that I had lost my ring sent the new one to me because she knew how much my old one meant to me and how sad I was that I had lost it. There was also a handwritten note from my friend inside the package ... a note reminding me that real and abiding happiness only comes when I live an authentic life ... an authentic, real and honest life that demands I be true to my God, true to others and true to myself as well. I've read the note from my friend many, many times over the last couple of weeks, and I don't believe it was a fluke that I lost my ring or that my friend chose the specific ring she did to replace it, or that she even chose to replace it at all. The truth is I got the wind knocked out of me in a big way a few months ago when it comes to being true to myself and honestly ... well, honestly, I'm still trying to figure out how to breathe again. If I haven't learned one other thing in my entire life, I've most definitely learned how difficult it is and how much energy it takes to pretend to be someone I'm not. Sometimes I wonder if Mr. Shakespeare had any idea when he wrote those words ... "To thine own self be true" ... I wonder if he had even the tiniest clue how hard they would be to live out.

So about that ring ...