How Does This Five-Word Sentence Affect You?
“Tra-lalala-la-la-la everyone born in March skip around. Yee-hoo!”
That is the song we sang at my grandson Ezra’s preschool the day they replaced the February calendar on the wall with a fresh one for March. This month’s birthday babes were invited to come to the middle of the circle and “skip around” because an upcoming birthday is a great reason for some hoopla and yee-hooing. At the invitation, Ezra and two other kids popped up off the floor and took center stage. One of the helper moms and Jackie, one of the preschool teachers, joined in the fun because they, too, belong to March. While they all skipped around, most of us cheered and sang and clapped. One girl stuck her fingers in her ears.
Later that day, when we were back home, Ezra wanted to make a birthday card for Teacher Jackie. His mama said she’d tell him how to spell “Happy Birthday,” but he had a different idea. “I want to write something else,” he said. This was his message:
“You’re the best Jackie ever!”
Oh my gosh. Come on. Hold it together, Cathy. I choked up when Ezra said those words, and tears stung my eyes. His words said so much! Then, with sincerity and determination, that almost five-year-old carefully wrote each letter to form the words he needed to let Jackie know what he thought about her.
Jackie, who will retire at the end of the school year, may never stand in front of adoring fans and receive an Oscar or appear on the cover of a magazine for some sort of attention-grabbing accomplishment. But when my grandson enters preschool in the afternoon, Jackie greets him with a warm smile and a friendly, “Hello, Ezra!” They connect during the day, and she makes him feel safe and special, and that means a whole lot. Obviously.
I don’t know how Jackie reacted when she received his card or what she did with it, but I know what I would have done. I would have framed that sucker and hung it on my wall as an on-going encouragement and a two-fold reminder: How we interact with others matters. And, words matter. (I also would have smothered the boy with hugs and kisses, but that’s me.)
Oh, how I desire to be the “best-Cathy-ever” version of me. Like Jackie, I want to dole out some sunshine and love and make a difference for someone. Ezra’s five words written in crayon, I’m sure, did that for Jackie. Jackie’s interactions with Ezra have done that for him.
The ways we can bless each other are countless.
As a writer, I am aware that what I craft and how I do it is one way I can make a difference. I will never be “the best ever” writer, but how I interact with clients as I interview them and then produce a well-written, meaningful memoir matters. What I write about and what I include and don’t include in my fiction writing matters, too.
A friend recently sent me an article from desiringgod.org called, “1 Percent of a Book Can Change Your Life.” The article is jam-packed with insight I can’t fully unpack here so please read it for yourself. In summary, the author comments that one percent of a whole book can affect us for the better for the rest of our lives. “...life-changing moments come in sentences and paragraphs, not in long, long remembrances of whole books. Lights go on, our hearts are strangely warm…and we are changed decisively.” I think that’s true.
Though Ezra’s gift to Jackie was not in the form of a book, I wonder if his one, five-word sentence written on a folded piece of paper changed her decisively. I know it had an impact on me.
When we write, create, and interact, let us be mindful and contribute some sunshine and love in this world because it matters. Words matter. Yee-hoo!