Hi!
Once again, I am grateful our paths are intersecting. May at least one word or one sentence you read resonate for you. Not because I want you to resonate with something I have written, but because words have been instrumental in guiding me along the way on the trail system called life. My wish is that I can pay forward to you from the gifts I received.
In the words of Maya Angelou whose words eloquently express my heart’s wish, when we cast our bread upon the waters, we can presume that someone downstream whose face we will never know will benefit from our action, as we who are downstream from another will profit from the grantor’s gift.
As communicated in the last Blueprints for a Hope-Filled Life, I have been listening to that inner whisper urging me to bring variety to my teaching, of which one of the avenues in which I love to teach is through writing. And you, my valued readers, get to be the recipient of my experiments with what that variety is. (smile)
One of the things I like to do is take a word and deepen its meaning. I do so by identifying words for each letter that spells the word I selected. And since I am very passionate about reframing the stories we tell ourselves that hinder our thriving in and with life, this week I am offering you a way to think about REFRAME differently.
R. Revisiting
E. Everything
F. Finding
R. Refining
A. Asking
M. More
E. Everything is not as initially seen
And, as you may have read from the last blueprint, I have also been finding variety in my teaching is leading me to play with fiction. Edward introduced himself last time. This week I would like to introduce you to Linh.
Again, thank YOU. For the time you spent reading a word, a sentence, partial, or all written in this message. You gave one of your most precious commodities to me – your time – and in doing so you gave another one of the greatest gifts we give to each other. You saw and heard me. May the words I write offer you back the same.
-Christine
Linh
Mỹ was born into the waiting hands of Cà, her beloved Aunt on August 19, 1948. The day of the moon festival or Trung Thu as it was called in Vietnam. Like being born on leap day in February, Mỹ’s birthday would not always be on this special day. The celebration took place on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, which varied year over year when the full moon would be its brightest in August.
It was fitting that Mỹ was born on this meaningful day. A day seeped in a 4,000-year history originating for the celebration of successful harvests and opportunity for parents to make it up to their children for being absent due to the long hours of harvesting. Always a time for eating a variety of candies, fruits, and special moon cakes. And oh, the way the yards were lit up with the breathtaking glow of lanterns and candles. As people gathered on this day in which the full moon appeared larger and brighter than any other time of year, they also prayed for life to bring fullness and prosperity.
Linh, Mỹ’s mother, had anticipated, hoped, longed for the baby she was carrying to be a girl. She didn’t know for sure if a daughter or a son would make her a mother for the first time. She didn’t know for certain her second dream had come true until her sister Cà handed a tiny, 6#, 4 oz. bundle of soft flesh into her outstretched arms and a tiny hand curled around Linh’s finger. Linh held her breath in awe as she folded this delicate being against her chest.
Her first dream was that the baby would be healthy. Mỹ was perfect in every way. Her precious and beautiful daughter who would be given a name to mean the same. Beautiful.
She closed her eyes as tears silently rolled down her cheeks. One waterfall of tears her gratitude for this perfect life she held in her arms.
The other Linh’s grief that she was bringing her perfect daughter into an imperfect world, that she would not be able to ensure life was always beautiful for this innocent new being that lay on her chest, resting against the beats of her heart that this beginning human had once heard while safely protected inside Linh’s womb. Linh cried tears for the day she would need to let Mỹ go.
With little Mỹ sleeping peacefully against her chest, Linh bowed her head and prayed to the full moon that fullness and prosperity would always be theirs.
It was 1948, and though Vietnam was experiencing political unrest, Linh’s tears were not yet crying for Bảo, her dear beloved husband, Mỹ’s soon to be very proud father once he placed his eyes on their child they had created together. This child born from the unity of two people who had defied the odds, or at least the nay sayers, who said their love wouldn’t last.
The naysayers who spoke vehemently, pleadingly, Anh ấy sẽ không thể chu cấp cho bạn. In English, this translated to “he will not be able to provide for you.” They would continue with “his family has no means. You will be poor all your life, Linh.”
This was her parents continual messaging.
But Linh and Bảo weren’t poor; they had their love and one day they would have financial prosperity. Bảo had ambition, much like her brother Hien did, too. Bảo had dreams one day she and him would own a coffee shop. They would serve food to customers, too. Oh, how she would giggle shyly, yet secretly proud, when Bảo would insist customers would especially love her homemade Banh Xeo, or Vietnamese Crepes.
Those tears for Bảo would come when Mỹ turned seventeen. When Bảo would die in the Vietnam War.
Linh’s tears when Mỹ was twenty years old would begin to fall the day Linh made the choice that she did. Linh would cry tears every day after that for the rest of her life.
It was three years after Bảo was killed when Linh cried tears of hope that the gentleman with kind eyes and a warm heart who came into the coffee shop for several days in a row would decide to take Mỹ safely from this war-torn country. This gentleman smiled in appreciation the way Bảo did when he bit into her Banh Xeo the first time.
It was during this gentleman’s visit that Linh received a letter from Hien, whose ambition had led him to the United States.
Dear Linh, I pray every day for Cà, Mỹ, and your safety. Please come to the United States and live in Chicago with me. I have been in contact with the embassy to begin the paperwork that you will need. I know it means leaving what Bảo worked hard to build for you and him, but my dear sister, I fear if you don’t come, I will be left to grieve. Please write back soon. Love, Hien
Linh held the letter tightly to her chest as she watched this gentleman take another bite of her Banh Xeo, his kind eyes smiling up at Mỹ.