I read this book to my niece two nights ago at our sleepover. I had forgotten about the note my parents had written in the front of it in 1999. I stopped to read it, and as tears welled up in my eyes, I tried to not let my niece see.It happened at the end too. Happy tears. I think she was confused why I was crying.
My Punchinello self has asked this same question for a long time.
"Why don't the stickers stay on her?"
The Lord has given me so many opportunities to learn this.
"Because she has decided that what I think is more important than what they think. The stickers only stick if you let them. The stickers only stick if they matter to you. The more you trust my love, the less you care about their stickers."
Of course we let our stickers stick to us - why wouldn't we? Stickers are the things that matter to us - our hopes and dreams, people who mean a lot to us, our accomplishments, our past, the compliments people give us,
And this is now my own thinking--
When one of our stickers doesn't turn out the way we planned, or a compliment or accomplishment we expected doesn't come
We put red dots on our original dots, of the ones that didn't turn out as expected, or betrayed us, so that we and everyone around us will be reminded of all of our self-declared failures - red dots that we let stick to us
sometimes that is all we see in the mirror and in our own countenances.
Why do we keep these?
Maybe we think that holding onto them will someday make the red go away,
or maybe because
it's hard. The stickers cling on tight and it's hard to pull them off.
I have thought a great deal about this, because we have referenced this book a lot at my job. It has taken me a long time to come up with how to get our red dots off. And it has been a glorious feeling to finally answer Punchinello's question.
In our own hands, we hold a box of dots too. They have sticky stuff on the back of them that can cling even more than the dots we get stuck with.
When we, or another person, or some life event is about to stick a dot on us, we stick our dot right back on that one coming towards us, adhesive to adhesive. And then?
The dot cannot stick to us. There is no more sticky stuff because we have made it impossible to stick to us. Our power to repel dots is in our own hands
our own dot box of trust and love and hope
prayers, studying, doing good, being a good friend, thoughtfulness
empathy. Charity, seeking,
visits to Eli.
Our own adhesive that will repel the dots.
2 comments:
Lindsay, I am so exciting you are writing again!! You are such a great writer and have so much wisdom. Thanks so much for the book! I can't wait to read it.
Linzers, seriously, it is a privilege to read your blog! I LOVE your insights! Also, THANK YOU so much for having the sleepover with Siena. That was so sweet! And don't worry about her wondering why you were crying. I actually read that book to her all the time and she's used to me crying. The first time she did ask, "Why are you crying?" but now she realizes I am just quite the sap. I can't even read Dumbo to her without crying (that part where the mom is behind bars trying to rock Dumbo with her trunk? Man!) I loved your insight about the dots. I feel like I always need reminders about who my self-worth should come from. So thanks. Love ya!
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