Epiphany ... the mirrors of others ... Precious!

I've had an Epiphany. Something about the way my cousin launched into what sort of a person his Auntie Jane is ... It soaked into me like beach water into squeaking tennies. What is it about who we are? Something about being mirrored in another person's eyes rounds out who we are. And what did Dougie say? That Auntie Jane is the sort of lady you like to sit next to one the bus.

It's been a few days now, and the picture keeps bouncing back to me. Ah, the lady on the bus, the one who chats you up a little and just brightens your day. You don't know what her medicine was made of, but something happened. She sprinkled some sparkles into your heart with her few words. It made both of you better, for sharing the moments.

Ships in the night . . . blinking a salutation to one another.*

It's good to know someone else is out there.

A soul touched a soul.

I want to be that lady on the bus.

Like I have told the kids for years, "Everybody's somebody else's weird guy."

• ... be sure to take your turn
  
• ... see that guy over there, you think he's weird, don't you? Well, that's how it works. You're probably his weird guy, too.
  
• ... go ahead and take your turn, but if you take too many turns, you're weird

-----------------------------

*
As I told my son this evening over the phone, "Manda mis saludos a todo sus amigos alli." I can't see those guys, I don't know who they are. I don't know where he is . . . but I hear them in the background while I try to listen to Harrison's Spanish sentences. He's telling me that tomorrow in the morning he'll be back home, or tonight, maybe. He hasn't decided yet. But he also says that he has to go to work tomorrow at One. He'll be working from One until Six. And I understood all that. I loved the "manana por la manana" (or however it's said). And there he was, repeating the word manana over and over in the sentences.

Were they listening and enjoying themselves? Did they think that his mom could understand him? Did they know that I was trying to answer without using English... just slipping in and out of it a little now and then.

I love that so much; understanding the other language with just the "sense" of the words, rather than the translation all the time. Manana por la manana makes sense to me. I get what that means without translating it. I heard the word for the future tense of "work" . . . don't know that I could repeat it, but I got the concept. I understood "one til six", saw the digits in my mind's eye. And it was all Spanish. Boy! That's fun.

A man once said that learning another language is like finding another soul inside yourself. I get that.