Do You Have a Minute?

“Do you have a minute,” she asks in between author visit assemblies. “My daughter loves your books and has been looking forward to this day. She has some extra questions to ask if you have a minute.” Eyes beaming – both her daughter’s and mine – a minute won’t be enough and we both know it. But we take what we can get. We cram as much as we can into the space between one assembly and the next. We take a picture for memory’s sake, but a camera can never capture the full joy that these exchanges bring. These are the minutes that wrap around your heart for a lifetime. Sometimes they are mere seconds as kids leave the assemblies to go back to class, often stopping along the way to tell me something that that has been wrapped around their hearts. Something that our time together may have stirred. Something that they are brave enough to share in the space of so little time, but that is deserving of so much more time. Feelings, experiences, emotions that make up the minutes of their lives…of our lives. I have a story too, they tell me. I walk with them as far as I can go, listening to the details of their stories, but we are separated all too quickly as they disappear down the hallway back into the day. Write to me and tell me about the rest of your story! I say. Everyone has a story. Everyone longs to share with someone. Do you have a minute? No better yet, do you have more?