We Don’t Always Know How Much We Are Loved

Grandma Rena and my dad

A post on Maria Wulf’s blog at Full Moon Fiber Arts reminded me of this. Maria wrote about a mysterious safety pin and a note that fell out of the pocket of an apron she was incorporating into a quilt.

I left a comment that the handwriting on the note looked like my grandmother’s handwriting. Grandma Rena, whose handwriting – and voice – is preserved on the recipe cards she gave me with my two favorite recipes for Banana Bread and Apple Cheese Bread.

Maria replied that hand-written recipes “are like pieces of art… they’re layered.” These certainly are.

I had the sense to ask for those recipes as a child, and it’s a good thing I did, because she passed away when I was in middle school.

Both recipes call for chopped walnuts, and Grandma Rena included, in parentheses, “leave out for Emmett,” my youngest brother who is allergic to peanuts. Grandma Rena wasn’t taking any chances, so she left out ALL nuts and always brought two loaves: One regular loaf for the family, and a small loaf without nuts for Emmett.

Well, my baby brother was too young to appreciate this, and he was probably only in kindergarten when Grandma Rena died. So I gave him copies of the recipe cards as a Christmas gift a few years ago.

Maria’s blog post reminded me of this, and I learned this lesson again: We are loved. We are more loved than we realize.

Somebody loves you. More than you realize.

This came full circle a couple of years ago, when my aunt sent me a newspaper clipping with a recipe for a “frozen lemon treat” (a kind of frozen custard/ice cream). There was a hand-written note at the top – in Grandma Rena’s handwriting – “Susie likes this.” My aunt found it at the bottom of the kitchen junk drawer she was cleaning out and sent it to me. I don’t remember either Grandma Rena or Auntie Terri ever making it, so I must have been very small at the time, but I have always loved lemon, so I’m sure I loved it.

That love note took more than 40 years to get to me. It came with love from both my grandmother and my aunt.

Somebody loves you, more than you realize.

And the people we love may not realize that, either.

Today let’s act on that.

Someone loves you more than you realize.

Take a moment to feel that.

What can you do today to act on your love for someone else?