KINDRED SPIRITS

Kindred Spirit---a noun. Plain and simple. A person whose interests or attitudes are similar to one's own. The work place often pulls folks together with similarities---but then sometimes it ends there. Work often tends to be the only connection.

Relationships can be guarded.....with communication on the"virtual plane" easier than face to face, even from the next cubicle. Real relationships are rare.

How blessed I have been to have had relationships that have blossomed, even in the early days of my work as a school librarian. ljj is one for whom I thank God for having her as a part of my “life’s journey.”
We were like an old married couple---acceptance, listening (she did it better than I) often finishing each other's sentences, understanding, (my circular thoughts and idiosyncratic lesson prep), together calling our students "friends" (3 John 1:14) and willing standing together year after year and serving 1,000 + cups of hot tea during "National Hot Tea Month" because together we "get it!"

Morning at ljj's new  home---served with tea and devotion.

Now we are separated by miles but the kindred connection remains. Devotional times, tea times with Mary Alice Hadley (Ky pottery) and a Lucado book. My teacup is from the "Delta" where ljj's  grandaughter, Lila, lives. 

ljj will pass on the new Gloria Houston book, Miss Dorothy and Her Bookmobile, because she knows my real name and we both love the premise of Houston's  My Great Aunt Arizona, who hugged her students when their work was good and she hugged them when it was not. Hugging encourages.

Book and cup are reminders of the importance of keeping up and staying close regardless of miles.

It's what kindreds do. As close as flesh and blood. 

When the spiritual factor is added it deepens and widens the relationship to a "kindred spirit."