Blown away...

A friend of mine sent me a card with Christmas.
She is about 6 months older than my little brother, and I’ve known her since she was very young. She was part of a singing group I set up in my late teens, she was a member of the youth group in our church when I was leader, and when I left, we stayed in touch.

She’s a scatterbrain of sorts, with her own timing to life and always busy with her personal(ity) development. Once in a while we meet up, talk for hours and hours and then go about our own lives again. She has a beautiful, creative and unique personality, that she's 'growing into', and I love talking to her, cause she speaks as she thinks and that leaves no space for pretence or ego.

As I said, she sent me a card with Christmas, wishing me and my family the best for 2009 and then she added something along the lines of: “I hope I won’t blow you away with this, but I really see you as “A Master of Life Art” (een Levenskunst Meester)
At all the important moments in her life, I had been there to help her through them…

……

Needless to say she blew me away….

The compliment was so big, that it had me off balance for the longest.
How do you deal with such a beautiful statement.
In flashes I feared that she’d greatly misjudged me and expected something from me as a person that I could not live up to. I went down the mental lane of…. I Haven’t Done Anything! We’ve had great conversations about all kind of aspects of life, it felt good to know each other, but ‘Levenskunst Meester’…. Pfffff…. All we do is talk!!
In a way Ialmost feel ashamed to write about it, cause it meant so much to me…. but feels so BIG.
I’m all for complimenting people, but this….. was just a little too BIG to just gracefully accept and say: ‘Thank you darling, you’re too kind.’
You know?

On the other hand, I was very passionate about that youth group and their development when I was their leader. Even though the age difference was no bigger than a few years, they kinda felt like my kids, and I put a lot of energy into our time together.

So when you get that kind of feedback, I guess you really should just smile, give the darling a big hug and thank her…. If you’ve made such a difference in someone’s life, and they see you that way, It’s only beautiful, even if it is a bit overwhelming…