Just feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything my lovely T does for me, and wanted to share...

My T is going on a 12 day holiday on Saturday. For previous breaks we have each written a letter summarizing what the main changes have been in my life and in our relationship. When she went on holiday over Christmas, however, I badly disconnected and it took us many weeks to get back on track. So I wanted to find a way to stay connected over the break. We usually have text contact morning and evening 6 days a week, and I thought maybe a sort of 'advent calendar' for the days T's away, with a morning and evening note in each, could be a good substitute for that. I made envelopes with numbers which I could hang along a string, and asked T if she could write the notes in our session. T has always said that she is totally unartistic and doesn't really enjoy crafty stuff. I would have been very happy with a line scribbled on a ripped slip of paper!

T came to our session yesterday with 24 little envelopes already prepared. She'd gone to a shop after a crazy day at work and bought special paper. She'd even bought pretty little pegs for me to hang them. She'd drawn suns on the morning ones and stars on the evening ones. She'd broken into her child's art stash to cover them with stickers. They have dates on them because she's talked in the notes about stuff I'll be doing that day. She's written about what she'll be doing, so I can think of her in a concrete way. I feel totally overwhelmed that T not only agreed to my idea, but took it and ran with it. This isn't something she bought, it's something she poured time and love into, and she went out of her comfort zone (of not being crafty!) to make it special. Yesterday she tucked two little envelopes for each day into my big envelopes, and I found myself telling her to go on holiday early so I could start reading them! We're not saying bye till tomorrow night though, so I'm trying to be patient

And then, when my heart was already full, she handed me an Easter present, saying she'd thought of me when she walked past the shop (my favourite shop in the world, but T didn't know that). She wrapped it herself (usually her gifts are shop-wrapped). She went in her break yesterday to buy me a card. I'm saving it for when we've just said bye and the bereft feeling creeps over me. I hope this time I feel less bereft