Each Life That Touches Ours For Good

I am blessed--and cursed--with a strong personality.  I have confidence, I feel my own self-worth, I feel capable of contributing.  I am also incredibly blessed to live with my best friends.  My husband and children are wonderful people who, incidentally, I hope to have as mine forever.  I love them with all my heart; but mostly I just like them a whole lot!

When we decided that it was time for me to go to work full time, I thought there were things that would be fun.  I was excited to wear something besides jeans and t-shirts (oh, Jeans and T-shirts!  How I miss thee now!).  I thought it would be fun to ride the bus and the train into the city each day.  I thought my brain would get some new exercise. 

What I didn't think would happen was that I would make cherished friends.  I was not looking for buddies; I already have buddies at home!

Yesterday the man who was my first manager in my full-time work came to my desk.  I no longer work in the same department as he, so his being at my desk means that he made an extra effort to come see me.  He said this was the 4th time he had come; the other three times I had been in my current manager's office.  We chatted for just a couple of minutes, mostly about our families.

After he left, tears sprang to my eyes.  I miss working with him and many others on 2LL.  I miss them terribly.  But if I left where I am now, I would miss these people terribly.  Truly, I would miss them enough to bring tears to my eyes just thinking about it.

Every time this feeling overwhelms me, I am surprised.  I did not expect to love my co-workers the way I do.  I did not expect to care about their families and their church callings and their jobs.  I did not expect them to care about mine.  I did not expect to be so blessed in so many ways--professionally AND personally--by so many people.  I did not think that I would sit in the cafeteria and greet literally hundreds of people and care about each one of them.  I didn't know that I would celebrate the conception of babies or mourn the deaths of parents and siblings of the people I worked with.  I did not anticipate putting my co-workers' names on the temple prayer roll month after month for years on end.  I did not know that I would pray for missionary sons and daughters by name, even though I've never met them.  It didn't even occur to me that I would wish that my work friends knew my parents and my husband and our children, or that I would wish that I could travel with them, or that we would gather for lunch or dinner or a 5K just for the FUN of it.

My life has been so richly blessed by so many people; and of course, it is not limited just to co-workers.  But to my cherished work friends--past and present--THANK YOU for blessing me.  I love you so much!