Last week I led a telephone workshop and my good friend, Suki, was on the line. During that call we spent a few minutes starting a Love List for someone in our lives. I asked people to share their experiences and Suki shared something that I thought would be helpful for all the Love List makers out there! Her idea was to include a short story to exemplify items on her Love List. She offered to write up a guest post to explain it — and also to share the wonderful story behind her idea. Thanks, Suki!
Love List Story
by Suki Haseman
One of the exercises Sherry had us do as a part of her telephone workshop was to make a Love List. I started jotting things down for my granddaughter, Lila, who is seven. One of the things I listed that I loved about her was her honesty. And then, because of her age, I felt she would need an example of what I meant by that, so I wrote out a story providing an example. This led to the letter I sent off in the mail today to her which I have included below.
I am a person who loves words that round out and expand the intent and meaning of what we say and write, so I feel that the story approach with Love Lists would work with people of any age — even if the expansion is one line and not a letter. As I was writing the letter, the experience of that day was alive for me all over again and I felt so connected to Lila even though we are 3,198.7 miles apart as the crow flies.
Thank you to Sherry for this providing me with this exercise which has expanded my world and hopefully the world of my granddaughter and of all of the people whose lives will touch hers. A love list knows no boundaries.
Suki's letter to her granddaughter:
Dear Lila, 
I wanted to tell you one of the things that I love about you. It is your honesty. Let me give you an example. When you were five you and daddy and grandma met up in Arizona to celebrate Easter. I had bought a hat for you that I thought you would love. When you opened it you tried it on and it was too small, so I told you that I would exchange it for a larger size and send it to you. You were very quiet and kind of stared down at the ground. When I asked you what was going on you said, “I’m a little bit afraid to tell you.” I replied that I hoped you could feel that you could always tell Grandma anything. Then you told me that you didn’t really like the hat and didn’t want another one.
It was very brave of you to be honest. Sometimes people don’t like that, even when we try to be very kind when we do tell the truth, and while it is very important to do our best to be kind, it is very important to be honest both for ourselves and for others. So I just want to tell you again that I admire you and hope that you will always be able to tell me anything that is on your mind or in your heart and that I will do my very best to listen to you with an open mind and an open heart.
I love you.
From Sherry: I think Suki's idea to include some stories behind the Love List items is absolutely marvelous. And, as we can see with her letter to Lila, detailing just one thing we love about someone can be a beautiful gift!
Photo copyright Suki Haseman