(Sorry about the last bummer informational message, I hope that this makes up for it)
This morning Manda came to me, with her palms out and fingers spread, which is what we call "star fingers" from her early childhood. She told me that she was empty, and needed a fill up. I was perplexed for a moment, before I remembered. I know that some of you probably remembered right off the bat, but I'm a little slow on the uptake, especially before 7 a.m.
I kissed Manda on each fingertip, her thumptip (?), and the palm of her hand. Then I closed the fingers over her palm. (Repeat for other hand) She thanked me, grabbed her car keys and left for school.
The concept behind the fill-up ritual is that Manda might feel sad, scared, lonely or just want a mama-smooch while she was at school. She would have spare kisses right there and waiting on the end of each fingertip, and would just press a finger to her cheek, and there was a kiss from Mama, just as if I was right there.
Unlike OPEC, we don't charge for kisses, so she didn't have to pay for the fill-up.
Kathy N-V
P.S.: If anyone remembers a similar ritual, it was adapted from a book called "Runaway Alice," one of those Scholastic books you could get at school, with the teacher handing out a pamphlet filled with hundreds of books that sounded interesting to me. Sometimes, if I was truly engrossed in the description of some book, Mom would take a quarter out of the grocery money, and I would get to buy it (whooh).
Back to the Ritual - Poor Runaway Alice (all the books had names like that) got tossed in one foster home until another until she finally hits the foster home jackpot: a loving home on a farm, where she is the treasured "only child". Each night, the foster mother would do the kiss thing then tell Alice to "Keep it tight, all the night." Hence, our ritual. (No, I didn't tell Manda about the story)