I’m feelin’ mighty smug these days.
I know that is never a good thing cause all the smug guys in the movies end up getting that smugness “slapped right off their faces “every time:)
I can hardly contain myself though.
Sis has been here for a little more than 3 weeks…maybe a month at most.
She stopped vibrating by the end of week 2.
She sleeps a solid 8 hours every night.
She laughs hysterically at all my antics. Bonus! An appreciative audience!
She applied for 3 jobs this week without any prompting from us.
She started working full-time yesterday, likes the people as much as they like her and appears content with this direction for her life.
We made sure, from the start, that she is welcome to live here for as long as she wants, no need to move out on her own if she doesn’t want to live alone. No need to get a job either…she’s fine doing whatever she wants, even just hanging around the house doing nothing if that is what she needs to do, food and shelter always available to her nevertheless.
Madness you think!
But there is a method to my madness.
I know my sister fairly well. The very basic genetics is her ADD…she cannot be idle for very long. She gets antsy, restless and quickly bored “sitting around doing nothing”. She is not a lazy person and likes to be outside in nature, working manually helps quiet and control that incessant restlessness caused by the ADD. Together, we have cleared a quarter of our acre yard that has grown to wild proportions and strewn with various trash items from the former owners. We have enough pallets to build a great shelter for the firewood. Sweet!
As far as her nervousness goes…well, it hasn’t disappeared but at least her emotions do not overwhelm her. Like me, strong emotions make her physically ill. Difference now? Someone else is here, with similar, acknowledged issues. The external pressure to “grow up” and not be so “dramatic” is gone.
When she first arrived, her loneliness was heavy on her thin shoulders, weighing her size 1 frame like an ocean liner anchor. She talked non-stop for 14 straight days! Poor thing, I felt very sad for her. And I often thought “OMG! Will this constant chatter ever stop?!” LOL. I’d go to bed with a throbbing head every night:)
Still, that slight discomfort was worth it.
My heart feels good when I say good morning and good night to her.
The frightened, trembling, sad-eyed woman has been replaced with my sister of yester-year.
So good to see.
And, yes, me being me I wonder for how long.
Still, that smug feeling of knowing I had the right way to help won’t go away yet.
Good thing my brothers and other sister are mad enough not to talk to us…I’d be crowing like a rooster how wrong they were and how right I am:).
That’s always a recipe for future embarrassment, right?