My three year old has been saying “I love you mommy” non-stop the past few months. He seems to say it whenever he is happy or I do something nice for him. It is the sweetest thing and makes my mama heart melt.
Even today I was in the other room while he was playing at the dinning table. And he simply hollers it again, “I love you mommy!” My guess is that with the past few months of quarantine it has been non-stop family time. He probably has gotten more attention from me recently than he has since before his sister was born! And he is so happy for it (most of the time!).
It reminded me - we all just want to be seen and heard, don’t we?
I recently shared some difficult things my family was going through. And my online friend Amy reached out and offered to have a virtual coffee date with me! We haven’t seen each other or chatted in real life for six years! Yet she was willing to reach out and offer some time and relationship in a time that was hard.
Last week I mentioned to my moms group over a virtual get together that I was struggling with the merging out of quarantine. I started seeing neighbors gather together and seeing online that people were reuniting with some of their family. I admitted to some jealousy that we hadn’t made any close enough friends here to expand our quarantine circle to and that our family was still too far away to just get together.
The mentor mom of my group (a mother of grown children) reached out and offered to go on a social distancing walk with me as she saw that I was lonely. It meant the world.
I am learning from these kind gestures and the full love tank of my son to remind myself to just reach out. With no strings attached. To simply put myself out there to people who are asking to be seen and heard.
I may not be able to change the world but I can be a part of the world of the people literally right in front of me. The people who live in my home, the neighbor in my neighborhood, the person I encounter at the store, the people I work with, and even the online community I engage in.
The world is hurting. May we listen and see. And simply reach out.
