More Gratitude (Because It Feels So Good to Be Grateful!)

Earlier in the school year, last fall, I was dropping off Lily in her classroom and helping her put her things in her cubby, when I suddenly realized I had a work commitment in the afternoon and had forgotten to make arrangements for her to get picked up from school. "What are we going to do with you this afternoon," I mused, really to myself, but she was listening.

"What do you mean, Mama?" she said, not alarmed but curious.

"Well, I just have to figure out how you're going to get home today," I said, hoping other parents in the vicinity were not hearing this discussion. Lily looked at me as though I were wearing a bowl of fruit on my head. 

"That's silly," she said. "Of course I will just go with one of my friends."

"Which friend?" I asked, the wheels turning as I wondered who owed me a favor, would be willing to take home one extra kid. Again, the quizzical expression.

"ANY of them, Mama," she said. "It doesn't matter. Everyone here is my friend."

I was able to change my appointment and pick her up myself that day, but I have not forgotten the absolute assurance with which she knew any child in her class of 17, the parents of these children, would envelop her unquestioningly. The puzzlement bordering on disdain when it appeared I did not take this for granted in quite the same way. 

And what I felt after all, was immense gratitude, both for my child who so naturally and effortlessly befriends, and the community that has made her feel like a member of a very large and unorthodox family.

That's all.