The internet made me cry today
Apr. 13th, 2011 07:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rumpelsnorcackBut they were good tears. It's probably been pretty obvious that I haven't had the best of times lately (hello, major understatement) but it wasn't until I had some happiness the other day when we were allowed to stop boiling water (that's still making me grin like a loon by the way: I can brush teeth just like a normal person - so exciting!) that I realised how unhappy I'd actually been til then. I'd got so used to just getting on with it, living the day to day life that we've come to accept as 'normal' now and whinging a little here in my LJ that I hadn't noticed that I hadn't been actually happy since the earthquake. The feeling of happiness was quite overwhelming actually - far out of proportion to the event but I'm sure it was because of the comparison to the total lack of happiness I'd been feeling before. Anyway, that's the background to what I'm going to talk about now - 7 weeks with very little happiness really does wear on you. But among all that there are moments that brighten your life. Let me tell you about some of them.
The first one came last week (well, not the first - there were a whole lot during home school time) when we received a parcel of books from the USA. Several weeks ago the friend I met from twitter at Willowbank wildlife park got in touch with me and said I needed to go to this site (which is an excellent site/blog about children's books, by the way) and to sign up for this. My friend is the Bronwyn mentioned in that post and she is one of the very best people I've met - what she has been doing to bring a bit of joy to children over our side of town, despite living on the basically unaffected side, has been just wonderful. I felt quite guilty signing up for it (since we didn't lose our house) but Bronwyn was quite insistent and to be honest we may not have lost our house, but the community is broken up quite badly what with the school's partial demolition, the kindy's displacement and the massive disruption to my kids' lives - and that's without the day to day things we just live with now. Anyway, fast forward to last week and we arrive home to a parcel on our doorstep filled with books. It's a wonderful selection:
Some of those are ones I remember loving myself and others are ones I'd never heard of before, and all are ones we didn't own ourselves. Seeing the joy on my kids' faces was amazing - Seth hugged his books for hours and is already nearly done with The Lightning Thief (I foresee some more books in that series in his future), Summer already knows Olivia word for word and Taylor is fully engrossed in James and the Giant Peach. The other books are also favourites (so much so that when I tried to get them all together to take the picture the books kept disappearing into little hands making it hard to get the shot). It was such a lovely idea and such a lovely gift for my kids. But the bit that made me teary is that Kate Braestrup book. That they thought of me as well as the kids was just so touching. It's a very honest and moving account of the author's life as a chaplain to rescue workers, a job she came to after her husband died which she talks about wuite a lot. I spent a lot of time trying to read it through tears despite not being particularly religious myself.
Then today I got home this evening feeling a bit blah (lots of reasons which I won't bother going into). Not long after, there was a knock at the door and a woman was standing there with a large gifrt box. I stared at her puzzled for ages and she laughed and said 'this has you a bit puzzled, doesn't it?' When I said yes she asked if the picture at the front gave me any clues:
I also took this photo while I was out and about - it's a 'wall of wishes' that Westfield malls gathered from across the country and sent down to be assembled at our Westfield. It's much bigger than it look in this picture and it also made me a bit tearful:
The first one came last week (well, not the first - there were a whole lot during home school time) when we received a parcel of books from the USA. Several weeks ago the friend I met from twitter at Willowbank wildlife park got in touch with me and said I needed to go to this site (which is an excellent site/blog about children's books, by the way) and to sign up for this. My friend is the Bronwyn mentioned in that post and she is one of the very best people I've met - what she has been doing to bring a bit of joy to children over our side of town, despite living on the basically unaffected side, has been just wonderful. I felt quite guilty signing up for it (since we didn't lose our house) but Bronwyn was quite insistent and to be honest we may not have lost our house, but the community is broken up quite badly what with the school's partial demolition, the kindy's displacement and the massive disruption to my kids' lives - and that's without the day to day things we just live with now. Anyway, fast forward to last week and we arrive home to a parcel on our doorstep filled with books. It's a wonderful selection:
Some of those are ones I remember loving myself and others are ones I'd never heard of before, and all are ones we didn't own ourselves. Seeing the joy on my kids' faces was amazing - Seth hugged his books for hours and is already nearly done with The Lightning Thief (I foresee some more books in that series in his future), Summer already knows Olivia word for word and Taylor is fully engrossed in James and the Giant Peach. The other books are also favourites (so much so that when I tried to get them all together to take the picture the books kept disappearing into little hands making it hard to get the shot). It was such a lovely idea and such a lovely gift for my kids. But the bit that made me teary is that Kate Braestrup book. That they thought of me as well as the kids was just so touching. It's a very honest and moving account of the author's life as a chaplain to rescue workers, a job she came to after her husband died which she talks about wuite a lot. I spent a lot of time trying to read it through tears despite not being particularly religious myself.
Then today I got home this evening feeling a bit blah (lots of reasons which I won't bother going into). Not long after, there was a knock at the door and a woman was standing there with a large gifrt box. I stared at her puzzled for ages and she laughed and said 'this has you a bit puzzled, doesn't it?' When I said yes she asked if the picture at the front gave me any clues:
There was only one group of people who would send me something like that. Most of you probably don't know that I've been a moderator at the Leaky Lounge since 2007 (though I have been a bit distracted lately and been very slack, whoops) and the lovely people there had sent this to me. I admit, I got tearful again - but like I said they were good tears. Both these things, coming so far after the quake and at a time when I'm at a very low ebb, have been so wonderful in giving me a bit of a pick me up. It's not so much the 'stuff' (though that is, of course, very welcome too) but the knowledge that people are still thinking of us and sending love to us that means so much. To all the Leaky people who are reading this: thank you. I really appreciate it and I love you all - this just reminds me why it's such a great place to hang out. Here's what the whole thing looked like:
I also took this photo while I was out and about - it's a 'wall of wishes' that Westfield malls gathered from across the country and sent down to be assembled at our Westfield. It's much bigger than it look in this picture and it also made me a bit tearful:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-13 09:27 am (UTC)Huge hugs xxx
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-13 09:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-13 09:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-13 10:54 am (UTC)I love How I Became A Pirate :P
That's an awesome awesome awesome gift parcel!! I hope you don't have to open the dementor one! That'll suck!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-13 08:48 pm (UTC)It is a very awesome gift party and while I hope to keep the dementors away, it's handy to know there's a remedy there :D
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-13 03:27 pm (UTC)Ahhh, I am familiar with this effect. I hope this is just the beginning, and you keep getting more things to be happy about *hugs* Both care packages look lovely!
I also took this photo while I was out and about - it's a 'wall of wishes' that Westfield malls gathered from across the country and sent down to be assembled at our Westfield.
I had to do a double-take at this. We have Westfield malls in the US too . . .
Globalization is creepy sometimes.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-13 08:52 pm (UTC)The Westfield thing is pretty creepy. From memory there was a bit of an outcry when Riccarton mall became Westfield Riccarton and there's still a local reluctance to use anything other than just 'Riccarton' to refer to it. We tend to ignore mall branding unless things like this happen.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-13 07:12 pm (UTC)The "in case of dementor attack" made me LOL.
Both of those care packages are just wonderful and I'm so glad they brought happiness to you and your family. *HUGS*
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-13 08:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-15 04:02 am (UTC)*massive hugs to all*
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-15 07:53 am (UTC)It's been hard, but stuff like this, you know, knowing people are still thinking of us - that really makes a difference.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-15 01:23 pm (UTC)