What Hugging Bear Salt & Pepper Shakers Have To Do With My Life: Everyday Magic, Day 73

They came from an episode of Bones, my one and only thing I rush to the TV to watch each Thursday. Natalie and I viewed an episode last year in which Cam reunites with a girl who almost became her daughter, and without giving the ending away, let's just say that those antique hugging bear salt & papper shakers played a big part in Cam and her almost-daughter's healing.

“Could you get those for when I go to college?” Natalie asked. Of course I could, and I did, finding a pair at the Antique Mall. When, a few days before she left, I pulled them out of their newspaper wrapping as we sat in the front seat of the van, both of us couldn’t stop laughing. It was the happiest I had seen her in months.

So when she moved into her dorm, I quietly put one of the bears on her dresser, the only one wrapped in a sock for the long ride home. She got the bear with the lower arms (yes, we actually re-watched the Bones episode to get right which bear went to mama and which to daughter) and I got the bear with her arms lifted, as if she’s dancing. You put the bears together, and they hug. You take them apart, and they seem to be dancing.

I think of my bear’s daughter bear 495 miles north (not that I’m counting), and I know already that while she may occasionally miss my bear, she’s happy.

#Children