Conditional Love and Encouragement?

 
"You look so familiar!" I said to a woman at our Senior Center; "What's your name?" She told me, and we studied each other for a moment before we both said the other's name at the same time! Big hug! I hadn't seen her for many years, but I remember something I don't think she remembers. 25 -- 30 years ago when we often met for lunch I'd talk about my intense dream of writing Jeff's story for publication. After a while, when this work didn't fall into place, and I STILL longed for it, she impatiently said, "Sybil, I don't want to hear from you again until you've written that book!!!" ~~~ I believe she was challenging me to "Just DO it!"~~~ she believed this goading would motivate me to get it done!!~~~ Catching up a little with each other's lives today, I mentioned that I have written "Journey With Jeff." She responded lightly, "I knew you would."~~~ Maya Angelou has said, "I have learned that people will forget what you said; people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made then feel." I pray I will never bury a relationship with treatening words of conditional love.

The Intensity of Raising Jeff and Jennifer

 
I remember reading a book by Annie Dillard about living a life so deeply consecrated that it would be like a moth attracted to a candle. The moth would be so intense about the flame that he would actually fly into it and be consumed. ~~~ As I remember, Annie Dillard wrote that we needed to be so intense about our mission in life that we could be consumed with it. At that point in my life, I was bringing up a son with Down Syndrome and a daughter with high grades in school. Life was intense!! I was trying to learn all I could to help my son develop and become all God had made him to be, as well as our daughter. I saw myself consumed with this challenge!!! And, it felt good to have such a purpose!!~~~ I was also trying to gather all the notes I had written since Jeff was six years old (1967) when I began listing all the things this child COULD do. 30 - no, 40 years later "Journey With Jeff" was ready for the world! Publishers said, "This is lovely, but we can't use it," so I read the 155 stories onto 5 CDs. These also are available, for enjoyment as you drive. Send an e-mail to rsreisch@frontiernet.net. (Photo is Jeff helping his Jennifer learn to walk.)

Don't Quit, Keep Playing

"This is a story about Ignace Paderewski, Poland's famous concert pianist. A mother who had ambitions for her own young son's piano playing bought tickets for a Paderewski concert. When the night of the concert arrived, the mother and her son found their seats near the front of the auditorium and kept their eye on the great, majestic Steinway on the stage. Soon the mother was talking to a friend in the seat next to hers and her son slipped away unnoticed.~~~When eight o'clock arrived the spotlights dimmed. The audience became very quiet and only then did they notice the young boy up on the piano bench, innocently fingering "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."~~~Needless to say, his mother gasped, but before she could jump from her seat to retrieve her son, the master pianist himself appeared on stage and quickly moved to the keyboard. "Don't quit, keep playing," he whispered to the boy.~~~Leaning over, Paderewski reached down with his left hand and began filling in the base part. Then his right arm reached around the other side, encircling the child, to add a running treble part. Together, the old master and the little boy held the crowd spellbound.~~~In the same way we know the master surrounds our lives and whispers in our ear, time and again, "Don't quit, Keep playing." (Excerpt from "Journey With Jeff." Photo ~ Jeff at four years old, entertaining a friend.)