Sunday, September 5, 2010

Am I My Finger's Keeper?

So I see this scene at Starbuck's yesterday that was a life changing moment for the people involved. I was on my second stop there at the end of my walk, and I was sitting right near the door waiting for my smoothie. I'm half watching this angelic little girl in a lavender tutu, fresh from the dance studio two doors down.

She's teeny - as young as you could possibly be and be enrolled in a ballet class and she's beautiful, as is her mother. I still have Harry Potter playing on my Ipod so the first time she yells OW I don't hear her. But in what seemed like a slow motion sequence from a movie, I notice the second sound, and turn my head, and I see that she had her finger in the hinge side of the door, and that the door is now completely closed.

It was like I was underwater with her mom. Both of us jump for the door in painful slowness and free her finger. I go to get ice, but before I go, I see the girl looking at her mother with this accusation on her face.

She is MAD and confused and clearly attributes the injury to her mother not preventing her from playing with the door, not stopping as it closed, or maybe not being able to control gravity. You could see on her face for just a second that she didn't understand why her mother had not controlled destiny just then, and not too long after, after we convinced her to put ice on it (not a good move, in her opinion, by the way) you could see on her face that she understood that maybe she was responsible.

Her mom finally says "Honey, you can't put your fingers in the door" and, sadly, she gets it. Ow. That hurt. My mom didn't save me. Shoot - is this MY deal? Am I going to have to watch out for my fingers now? My mom used to watch out for my fingers. WTH? This stinks. I don't like growing up.

And then, still crying, she hugs her mom so tightly I swear I hear her neck crack.
The whole thing probably took one minute. Maybe two. And her finger was fine. Kids are tough.

But it was pretty amazing watching a little teeny human figure out, maybe for the first time, that she was going to be her finger's keeper at some point. It was sweet and sad at the same time. None of us probably remember that happening to ourselves, but I think I will always remember it happening to this little girl.

Stamps: Notably Ornate, Unity Greeting Ink: Basic Black, Bermuda Bay Paper: Whisper White, Vellum, Crumb Cake
Accessories: Webster's Pages Ribbon Trim, MFT Die-Namics Scallop Die, Corner Chomper, Circle Punch 1.75", Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Big Shot
(Stampin' Up! Supplies available here.)

If I knew who she was, I'd send her this card, but I don't.

So instead, I will give one of you the 25 free Unity stamps from Friends with Flair Friday!

There were 73 comments - 72 here and one sweet lady who posted on Facebook because she couldn't leave a comment here. Random.org picked lucky #38!
So jmahugger - please email me your address so Unity can send you your goodies.

And people - watch your fingers....

xo

Have you signed up for the UBlue Cyber Club? Attended one of my Webinars?? Come on - get your geek on! :) Want to see my other blog?

6 comments:

  1. Congrats to jmahugger! That is awesome.

    Beautiful card again, Lydia. I got the weird tingly-cringing feeling in my spine reading about the little lavender ballerina and her finger. Ouchie! Those hard lessons are, well, hard to learn. Poor baby, glad to know that you and her momma were both there to help her.

    Hope you enjoy the rest of your wonderful weekend!

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  2. This post made me almost a little teary. Sigh. And btw the card is beautiful!!

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  3. Love your card. Now I better check and make sure my fingers are far away from the door hinges.

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  4. Hi Lydia,

    What a story! You are an amazing story-teller! Kept me reading and reading to see what happened next! Sometimes there are moments like that and you can read people's faces, very impressive! Maybe the mother of this girl is a blogger as well and reads your story! So then you can send this wonderful card to her! What pretty colors and love that bird! Beautifully made! And a huge congratulations to the lucky winner!! Wow, what a fabulous price!

    Hugs,
    Wendy

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  5. Congrat's on the winner of all that yummy Unity! Love this card, the colors and the design, geez, I'm so going to have to kopykat it. Loved your story even more. It reminds me of when my daughter (now 25 with a little one of her own) has a revalation about something she was mad at me for as a child and then has this great insight all of the sudden and tells me she now understands. LOVE those moments too.

    I don't know why, but I kinda always feel responsible for all little one's fingers now. lol.

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  6. OWWW! That's how I had to learn Science, too. My specialty was car doors. If I wasn't too badly hurt, my Mom would say, "Shut up, or I'll give you something to cry about!". She loved me, but wanted me to grow up smarter than I was, so I'd survive Outrageous Fortune. She did a fine job.

    ReplyDelete

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