The Importance of Friendship

Hey, guys! How is life? I have been super busy and doing exciting things since I last wrote. And by exciting I mean I SPENT TWO WEEKS IN EUROPE WITH MY BEST FRIENDS FOR EASTER BREAK! I still can't quite believe it. It had been a dream of mine to visit Europe, especially with my friends, and I can't get over the fact that I've actually set foot there. I mean like, my body was actually walking around in London. Oh, and don't freak out, but my best friend and I went walking around London on my last day and we went to this market area and it was cool and stuff. And then I watched season 4 of Sherlock a few weeks after I got home, and I noticed that they shot a scene in the same marketplace that we visited! Yeah, I was pretty psyched!

Ahhh, England, I miss you. I miss the tube and the pubs and how still the nights were because not a shop was open. I miss the coffee shops and the parks and galleries and the walks. I miss how everything seemed so sophisticated and when I came back home I realized how rough and rugged home seemed. I miss the accents that made me feel like I was stepping into any audio book ever made or a gothic romance novel. And of course, I miss my friends. The ones I've known for almost half my life, and the new friends I made while I was there. I miss that I can never go back to those moments, but it's okay because I'm happy that I was able to experience them.

Mia, thank you for going into a pub and ordering chips and ice cream with me. Thank you for spending two hours on the first step of our hiking directions because something nobody can accuse us of is having too little determination. Thank you for navigating way better than I could, even though it must have been stressful. Thank you for talking out our feelings with each other without getting into fights. Thank you for waking up at 4 in the morning and literally running through the airport with me so that I could make my plane. Thank you for being the best friend I could ever hope for.

Ellie, thank you for cutting my hair, and for always asking if I was okay. Thank you for  being a holy woman of God and for understanding. Thank you for being my eyes when I literally couldn't see. ;)

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I watched the last season of Sherlock after my trip and, my word, it left me with so many feels. You can see all throughout the show how Sherlock goes from being an arrogant, selfish person with no friends, to having friends but still being selfish, to learning how people work and interact with each other and trying to emulate them. And then finally in the last season, we see how much Sherlock really cares. He is willing to put himself in harm’s way to help the people he loves. Even some of his gestures that would seem rude, are his way of showing care. For example, he tells John and Lestrade that he’s going to take a cab on his own and that they’ll have to catch another one. When they ask him why, he says, “Because I need to think, and I don’t want to hurt you.”

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I think a lot of this show is focused on human behavior. No matter how much we may think we are different, we all need relatively the same things. People who try to function on their own, quite frankly, cannot. We fall apart on our own. As much as we want people to think we don’t care that much about them, we do.

I've found that I need people. I don't know how dry and starving I am until I go a long time without conversation and then finally have one again. With someone who really cares about what I'm saying, who doesn't give the impression that I'm talking too much or bothering them. But the time is never enough, and I'm always afraid that if I ask for more, I will be asking them for too much. That it will ruin the good that we had and I will give the impression that I'm clingy. Or that I will find out that they don't care about me as much as I do about them. I think that's one of my biggest fears. Finding out that the attachment or bond I have with someone isn't as strong as I think it is. I'm afraid to move away, to trade the good I have now for something better because it's still a good that I will lose. I don't want people to think that they aren't important to me. But I'm scared that if we move apart they won't think of me at all. My greatest fear is forgetting people and memories, and people forgetting me.

We all need to be needed. We need other people, and we need them to need us. There is no human in history who has ever functioned well without having someone who could understand them, or who they could relate to. It's impossible for us to live isolated lives. But that's what we spend most of our lives saying - "I don't need help." Essentially, we push away what we need. We damage ourselves. That's why you should take all the help you can get and give all the help you can give.

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We’re never going to make it through this life alone. Even Jesus had friends. He had over 12. He didn’t do his ministry on his own. That’s why good Christian fellowship is so important. Have friends who inspire you, who push you, but who will also be there to listen in the times when you fail, or who buy chips and ice cream in a pub with you, or who ask if you're okay, or who make sure you never miss your prayer time. I'm telling you, those kind of people are the best you could hope for.

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- Maddie

Forgetting - MMC (August 3, 2015)

I won first place last week:) It's awesome and cool.

This week, I used the picture prompt and the items prompt. It is a continuation of last week's story. It's 299 words long.

She looked into the mirror and faked a smile; practice for her presentation. But through the false display of happiness on her lips, she could not conceal the tears that formed in her eyes. Her glance fell on her papers - the items that held the dreaded words she would have to propose - and she stuffed them back into the manila envelope where they belonged, resisting the desire to put them through the shredder. Just as she had begun to forget and move on, something had come up again. As though losing her own daughter was not enough, she now had to give a presentation about what could be done to help missing children, leaving her emotions out of the picture.

Her hand touched the cold knob of the dresser drawer. There was the usual option. Always, she hated doing it, but for the sake of her job and her husband, it seemed the best thing to do. She would only use the smallest amount, and the effects would wear off by the end of the day. She pulled out the little bottle, and studied the label on it, though she knew from past times that it read:

SPRAY TO 

FORGET 

SHAKE WELL

The woman followed the instructions, breathing deeply. A calm came over her, and when she glanced at the bottle in her hand, she couldn't remember why she had used it. Sighing, she put it away and took out a rose petal scented perfume, putting the finishing touches to her outfit. Not long after, she heard the apartment door burst open, and David was soon in the room. "Emily, they have a lead!" His eyes were wild with joy. "They think they've found Margaret."

The woman blinked in confusion. "I'm sorry..." she said. "Who is Margaret?"

auf wiedersehen, darling

- Maddie

Memories - MMC (June 20, 2016)

"So, what's in it?" Alex dropped to his haunches and reached to lift the flap of the cardboard box. He pulled, then realized that it was still taped shut.

"I don't know." Avery raised his shoulders in a shrug. His arms hung still, almost as if in fear, at his side.

"You don't know? Why'd you bring me over here, then? What if it's something stupid, like old crafts gone badly from someone's kindergarten days, or something?" His cousin didn't look impressed.

Avery's gaze shifted to the box again and he drew a breath. "It's not. There have been some... other things I've found up here in the attic, and... this is something serious."

Alex looked at him with a skeptical glaze in his eyes, but Avery didn't look up as he got to his knees and slit the tape. Both were still a minute, wishing the other would be the one to move first and open it. Finally, Alex sighed and mumbled something to the extent of, "How bad can it be?" He flung open the flaps and the boys stared down at the contents.

For a moment, nothing would have compelled them to touch anything inside. But neither were they ready to turn away. 

"It's..." Alex began to state the obvious, but decided to ask something more important. "But why?" He lifted his gaze from the box for the first time since it had been opened and stared at the boy that had brought him up there.

Avery remained silent for a few moments more, gathering the right words to sum up the picture. When he spoke, he whispered. "Because someone didn't want Margaret's family to remember her. But they didn't want to remember the times she wasn't theirs, either. And most important, they didn't want her to remember."

Hey, guys! I used the picture prompt, and it's 301 words. I won 2nd place last week! I know this is a little vague, so sorry. It's a continuation of the stories about Margaret Johnson I wrote: this one, and Forgetting. Hope you all have a lovely week! And if you want to join the Monday's Minutes Challenge, go here!

- Maddie