I finished rereading Ramona's World yesterday and you know? This part gripped me:


"To everyone's surprise Susan threw her apple across the lawn... Her face crumpled as if she were about to burst into tears.

'Why, Susan.' Mrs. Quimby put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Whatever is the matter, dear?'

'Everything,' said Susan through her tears. 'Nobody likes me and everybody likes Ramona.'

'You are supposed to like people on their birthdays,' Ramona tried to explain to make things better.

'I don't mean just on your birthday,' said Susan with a tearful gulp. 'I mean every day. People even make valentines for you. All mine were store-bought. You aren't perfect and nobody cares. ... I'm supposed to be perfect every single minute,' said Susan, her chin quivering.

How awful, thought, Ramona, beginning to feel sorry for Susan."


Can anyone else identify with Susan? 

I remember telling Tom something very similar back in my 40's, saying I was sick of the unfairness of it all. How it seemed that I showed mercy toward my friends and their imperfections, but oh! Just one mistake from me and they walked away, never to come back. Or the friendship faded to yearly Christmas cards. Then nothing.

But alas. One of the many reasons I enjoyed my 40's (especially the second half) is that I learned to let some things go, including friends, if that's what they wished to do. If they discovered I was just too much--or too little--for them. And I learned to let God bring the right friends into my life, ones who liked me, warts, sins and all.

And that has made all the difference.




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"Love hardly even notices when others do it wrong." From 1 Corinthians 13, TLB



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