“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
When I opened my comments this morning, Kaci from MY THREE SONS, gave me a beautiful gift. Her kind words made me realize how we can touch people with our written words.
You see Kaci is a single mom raising three sons: 14, 13 and 3, and she wrote: “I have a little story that I wanted to share with you. Last night my 14-year-old son was sitting with me in the living room and he was looking at my blog. He was asking me questions about some of the wonderful blogs I follow and we got to yours.”
Kaci wrote how she’s had numerous conflicts with Coltan, including one on mothers’ day last year, when he was rude and nasty and complained and whined the whole day. “So I have gotten my feelings hurt on more than one occasion with his behavior and words,” she wrote.
Now this is where I come in.
Coltan started reading a blog post I wrote, the one about what does number 11 mean? I talked about my 21-year-old son coming back from college and that it had been 361 days since I last hugged him.
Kaci’s son looked at her and said, “You mean, you moms really count stuff like that?” Kaci replied, “Yes, Coltan, a hug or a simple I love you means so much to us.”
Coltan continued reading the part where my son made a comment that truly hurt me, and suggested that he might be joking.
So Kaci, thank you for opening my eyes. Tell Coltan I’m honored he read my blog post, and decided to change. Great son you have, and Coltan, great mom you have.
The power of spiritual good words.. Good job!
Lovely post and well done!
It is so easy to hurt with words and actions, and yet why is it so difficult to remember to make people around us glow when all it takes is a few kind words?
Coltan and I will have 18 days starting tomorrow, minus a few days that he will be with his father, together. I plan on reading to him our conversations and show him how the "little things" means so much.
I'm going to try and plan a little somehing with him on a few of those days.
Very nice post. Again, I'm glad that our paths have crossed.
Take care and bless you for your honesty, and love for your family.
What a lovely story. It is amazing how the internet connects people and, despite what many people might think, I do believe that these are real meaningful relationships.
Kudos to you for helping to open up communication with a teenaged boy. You never know what the catalyst will be, but with teenaged boys or anyone else, kind words can work wonders.
That story reminds me so much of the quote from Mark Twain:
“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years.”
uhhhhhhh
lovely post
The little things do count
Great post! Our children can hurt us in so many ways, without realizing it, so it´s special that your post brought that to the attention of a young person.
It encourages to cherish those special moments with our kids too!
Great post! I know I have been touched over and over by my friends I have met through blogging. It is a wonderful community.
What a lovely story. It is amazing how the internet connects people and, despite what many people might think, I do believe that these are real meaningful relationships. Thanks for your lovely posting. I really enjoyed it.
Bathmate
There you go. I think many of us question why we blog now and then, and this post is a perfect example of why we should forge on. You really made an impact on this woman and her son, how wonderful!
Happy Holidays!
Sonia,
Such joy to read this post. Not often we writers, or moms, find out something we've done has made an impact.
Been remiss in visiting. Hope all is well.
That is great that you facilitated a conversation between a teenager and his mom! 🙂 It is great you were able to touch their lives even though you live so far away. It's nice to think about how our words, verbal or written can affect people in ways that we might not have expected both for good and for ill.
I appreciate all of your positive and kind comments on my blog lately!
Sonia,
Very gracious of you to honor the mom and her son for reading these words, and for Coltan to make a decision to change. But compliments to you, also, for writing words that resonate with where people live. Good job!
Lovely post!
Please come to my blog and download my FREE e-book. That is my gift to all my blogger friends around the globe.
Hope it makes you smile… 🙂 (Let me know!)
ps. all your readers are welcome too!
This just made my day! Thanks!
Have a very Merry Christmas!
It looks so good in the post.
Many thanks for your nice posting, I like it.
Bathmate
What a beautiful post.
That's rather made my day :0)