(V)eronica

Veronica makes me laugh. Veronica makes me laugh at times when I want to cry. Veronica makes me laugh when it just feels good to be silly for a minute.

She puts herself out there for you to embrace. She loves to embrace. Physically and figuratively. She often embraces life appropriately, and my guess is that she gets herself in trouble embracing inappropriately, but on a less often basis. Call it an embrace, call it a hug - she gets her arms around it. She gets her arms around life.

Veronica watches and reads people. She imitates movements, mocks quirky gestures, masters the tilt of the head, exaggerates the most embarrassing or dreaded personal traits. She can do this because she watches and studies to find the strengths, the good, and the valued lessons that should be gleaned from everyday encounters. She is keenly aware of inadequacies, the bad, and lessons that are learned by watching others self-destruct.

Veronica is a good mother. She takes delight in the little Martin Luther King Jr. wannabe. She understands why the confiscated portable game system was retrieved by the 8 yr old, and yet knows that the deed must be corrected and punished. She races from work to find the misplaced baseball socks while feeding the kids hot dogs in the backseat only to find no jerseys of her son's team colors on the field. The game was the following week. Veronica makes me laugh.

Veronica is genuine and feels deeply. She is strong yet vulnerable. You can see the vulnerable days in her face, her shoulders, in her walk. She walks with purpose, engages easily, smiles, and tosses her head on the good days. She is bright in oh so many ways. She contributes. She brightens the room. People enjoy Veronica.

Veronica tries. She is learning that right will out, wrong is dealt with in time, but not always when it will help us the most. She is her best - as best as she can be as she is so human. She tries and in the big picture - she succeeds.

Veronica is a friend, a wife and mother, a sister and daughter, a co-worker. She loves, she is loved. She embraces all of us. She makes us all laugh when we need it most. She is truly (V)eronica.

This is dedicated to my favorite blog-snoop who makes me laugh.