Esra and I met at the public library where we participated in an art activity. The librarian displayed lots of coloring sheets and discussed the benefits of art. Esra and I made our first eye contact across the room, and she won me over with her immediate sunny smile.
Next to her sat her curly-headed five-year-old son. I loved watching the pair as they sat closely, concentrating on making beautiful designs. After the program, we met in the lobby and struck up a conversation. Despite language barriers, I discovered Esra was from Turkey and had accompanied her husband to the United States for a year-long university assignment.
She was seeking a tutor in conversational English, and I love teaching. We began a beautiful friendship. She is young, and I am not. She is Turkish; I am American. She is Muslim, and I am Christian. But instead of looking for differences to divide us, we chose common ground.
I admire her courage for being willing to adapt to a new culture and study a foreign language. Esra keeps a tiny notebook with pages of translations from Turkish phrases to English in perfect handwriting. We discussed the meaning of “courage” as a noun. Then we talked about “courageous” as an adjective. Next, we analyzed the verb “encourage.”
“How did your sons do today on their first day of school when you dropped them off?” I asked. Both boys began total immersion in a public school setting only in English, a language they had yet to learn.
She got teary for a moment, then rallied. In short, labored phrases, Esra explained that when her older son expressed anxiety about going, she comforted him by blowing out a kiss and catching it in her palm.
“I told him to put my kiss in his pocket,” Esra said. “He could take it out any time when he needed me.”
This sweet story of courage warmed my heart. Esra encouraged her son to be brave and know that she was with him.
We all need kisses of tender love to put in our pocket for difficult days.
Who can you send a kiss to today?
Resource for cute kids’ book helping them deal with separation from parents during school:
https://www.amazon.com/Kissing-Hand-Audrey-Penn/dp/1933718102
