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That happened to me Saturday. As I ran out the front door, I saw the mail truck just three houses away. Happy dance! I beat the mailman (ours is actually a mail lady). YAY!!!
Walking toward the house, I flipped through the non-catalog mail. Nathan got a big envelope from Belmont University (big envelopes from colleges are good). I ran.
Sadistically torturing me, Nathan painstakingly opened the envelope. He read the cover letter. Carefully. Slowly. I am certain he's never read a textbook that thoroughly, not even a page of a textbook! Next, he flipped open the folder that came with the letter and vigilantly explored that material. True torture.
Watching and waiting, not so patiently, I realized something profound: every aspect of our lives is shared with the mailman. Or mail lady.
A few years later, birth announcements come and go. The box fills with diaper coupons and children's life insurance offers. Toy catalogs arrive. Christmas card deliveries, with pictures of our growing children tucked proudly inside, swell during the early child rearing years.
And now... college mail. Inquiries from schools across the country started appearing early in Nathan's sophomore year and the volume has grown exponentially with each passing semester. Now, updates from the schools he actually applied to arrive and of course, the big envelopes. Next will be high school graduation announcements and then, soon after, care packages, lovingly packed, will be sent from our box to his.
Through it all, the mailman is there... a quiet, essential part of our lives.
15 comments:
I love your writing. I love your thought process going from Nathan torturing you to how the mailman is involved in everything:O) I hope everyone has as a friendly a mailman as I do. It makes the events in our lives that much more fun when they celebrate with you. Thanks for sharing. BTW, you didn't tell us if there was anything really exciting in that letter:O)
Love you my friend!
jenn
Hmmm.....
Maybe I should torture you guys the way Nathan tortures me. Just to prepare you for when your own kids go to college, of course. Not because I've got a mean streak in me or anything ;-).
OKAY....
Really.... He got his first scholarship offer. He was thrilled to see them offering him assistance to go to college based on his academic achievements. Hopefully, this is the beginning of lots of amazing big envelopes!!!
Beautifully written Karen. Congrats on the first scholarship offer. Hopefully bigger ones are on the way via the US Postal Service. LOL Tell Rob hello. Love you guys.
Duane,
While I adore our mail lady, you will ALWAYS be the world's greatest, most beloved mailman!!!! Hands down! :)
Join us in praying for those bigger scholarships to arrive via the US Postal Service. Okay???
Love to you and Kelli!
I loved this piece Karen. I love to follow a similar process in my writing, taking the ordinary and finding the extraordinary! You do this so well and I love to read your writing! Congratulations to you and your son!! How exciting!! xo
Oh that is SO true! There were times, I felt a bit infringed in our privacy, knowing that the one mail man knew so much about our little lives. But now we are in a location where we rotate through 3 different mail people in any given week. It is always the same 3, but now not ONE of them knows ALL about us. Just makes me feel a little better, since I don't even know their first names. lol.
So..I'm being nosy, but What did the College message say??
Sure hope it was good news!
Your VB Friend JadeLouise Designs
I LOVE this. We must think the same way. I live in a pretty small town and sometimes I hate it that the mailman knows so much ;) I've also felt that way about the photo developers. They saw my kids in diapers, and now they're seeing their first days of school etc. LOL!
This is an AWESOME post :)
Kathy,
Thank you for your kind words. The extraordinary exists all around us -- I love those moments when they become visible :) It's like every day has a little gift for me -- magic in a way.
Okay, now I'm sounding dopey!!!!
BEAUTIFULLY written!
D
Love this! I have often thought about how much of our lives the mail carrier sees- good and bad. Few others know as much about us as our mail people do! Kind of a scary thought.
My mother used to be a mail lady and what's funny is that they don't just know what's going on in your life based on the mail but they have the address and names memorized as well. My mom even carried dog treats with her and would give them to the neighborhood puppies she would see along her route. Often times she would even receive gifts from people she delivered mail to...she was just an extended part of their family! Anyway, great post. :-).
That was great! I have actually never given the mail person a second thought except at the holidays when I start to realize how busy I keep her. But so true, they know so much about us and have been around for it all. Such a cool perspective! And makes me want to give her an even bigger gift of recognition. :)
This is great and so true! I have had a lot of excellent mail folks, but they seem to always move on to a new neighborhood at some point. I often think about how much they know about us! And as others have the good and the bad!
You know, that's so true! Every time I hear someone talk about the downfall of the postal service, I think... wait, wait, I'll send more cards! I promise!! LOL Fun post!
Smiles, Jenn @Misadventures in Motherhood
So true! We had a great friendship with our mailman, and the whole neighborhood just loved him, so we all threw him a retirement party. He really was like a family member.
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