Gossip

It’s very common, when we hear of something happening in another person’s life, to share the information with others. And unfortunately, the bad news spreads just as quickly as the good. In the process of mentally sorting through third-party details, I have to remind myself that I’ve not heard the whole story and am not certain of the validity of what I did hear.
Usually when I finally connect with the grapevine and am shocked by the news I hear, I tend to turn to my husband to relay the message. “Hey, did you know about…” And more times than not, he answers that he has, in fact, heard that news already. That’s when I fly into the Spanish Inquisition with questions like, “How long have you known?” “Who told you?” and “Why didn’t you tell me?!!” Dom is such an amazing man. He calmly gives a half-hearted shrug, glances at me and states simply, “It’s none of my business.” The unspoken part of his answer is: and it’s really none of yours, either. Let’s not judge something we don’t understand. See, God knew what he was doing when he brought us together. Dom keeps me grounded, reminding me not necessarily of my faults, but of my capacity to be better than I am.
So often I have felt an array of emotions over gossip – anger, pity, satisfaction. But have I ever paused to say a prayer for the person who is the subject of the news? And then further vowed not to spread the details of someone else’s trouble? How much better off would everyone be if, when we hear gossip, we simply remembered not to judge something we don’t understand.

Feeding Mommy

Aaron loves fruit chews. We have found Elmo fruit chews, Pooh fruit chews, and the highly-coveted Bob the Builder fruit chews. We ration this sugary snack because Aaron is known to pack them away in his cheeks for too-long-at-a-time. Fruit Chew time is usually spent with me reminding him to chew them up or he will have to spit them out. Today Aaron decided to share his precious Bob fruit chews with me. I was busy feeding Victoria, so I graciously accepted his feeding me the fruit chew and declared it to be the tastiest fruit chew I had ever eaten. Aaron decided then that I needed more. He immediately fed me "anunner" and "anunner" and "anunner" until my mouth was so full of fruit chews I covered my mouth with my hand to prevent the inevitable overload. As I hurried to swallow them down, Aaron showed me the cup of fruit chews he had been feeding me. They were shinier than I remembered them looking in the package. Aaron explained, "See, Mommy? I spit them out!"