A story about friendship, forgiveness, gratitude and Auld Lang Syne
This story was inspired the very well-known song: “Auld Lang Syne” written by Robert Burns. You can also find a recording of this story on the Ohmapi Podcast: Bridget and Fiona
Bridget and Fiona
Once upon a time, there was a girl. Let’s call her Bridget. Bridget lived long ago… long, long ago. About 300-400 years ago (1618-1718). Back then, Bridget’s family didn’t have a car, TV, nor did she have electricity or even indoor plumbing. Light was provided by candles. Heat was provided by the fire in the fireplace. And water was fetched from the well. It was quite a bit different than how we live today.
Bridget had a best friend. Her name was Fiona. Bridget and Fiona played together every chance they could get, which was not nearly long enough nor often enough to them. That may be something you can relate to. Anyway, the girls often played at each other’s houses and helped each other with chores. In that way, they could spend more time together and get their chores done quicker and thus, they could have more time to play.
They lived in Scotland, where the weather was cool year-round. It was never quite hot, yet never cold enough for snow to stick. It rained quite a bit. But that never seemed to bother them as the girls didn’t know any different. If they ever complained about the weather, which wasn’t very often, their mothers would simply say, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes.” The girls would add another layer clothing and run off happily to play outdoors.
In the summer, they would pick daisies. In the fall, they would roll about in piles of leaves. In the winter, they would jump rope, and in the spring, they would climb trees to pick cherry blossoms. Day after day, season after season, and year after year went by as the girls grew older and bigger.
They each kept a blessing jar: one for Bridget and one for Fiona. Each day that they played together, just before one or the other had to head home for dinner, they took a minute to recount the day’s blessing. They thought about what they saw or did that day and then wrote it down on a slip of paper and put it in the jar.
They didn’t start the blessing jar until they were about 9 years old because they didn’t know how to write until they were 9. Back then, not many people knew how to read and write. Bridget and Fiona were extremely fortunate to even have the opportunity to learn to write.
When they were young, the blessings were simple, like “The sun came out today” or “Momma gave us an extra biscuit today” or “We saw a rabbit.” As they grew older, sometimes their blessings remained simple, like “The sun came out today,” and sometimes they were a little more complicated, like “We brought soup to Old Lady Hendricks, and she seems to be recovering nicely from the flu.”
At the end of each year, on New Year’s Eve, as they sat by the bonfire with their families, they read their blessings, one by one. Each blessing they read brought back memories, sometimes stories, sometimes smiles, and lots of giggles. After reading each blessing, they tossed it into the fire, making room in the jar for the next year’s blessings…which started the very next day.
The blessing they wrote on New Year’s Day wasn’t so much a blessing as it was a goal or resolution for the upcoming year. Usually, the first day of the year was spent trying to figure out the goal of the year and how to achieve it.
One year, Fiona’s goal was to have curly hair like Bridget’s. All day, the girls brainstormed how they could achieve that goal. They considered what to eat, how to sleep, exercises, magic potions…on and on they went. For weeks, months, and the whole year, they worked at it. And by the end of the year, they figured it out. They had perfected a braid pattern that gave Fiona curly hair.
The blessings and resolutions went on for years. Bridget and Fiona grew up, and each married a local boy and remained in the same town. They each had children about the same age and their children played together.
When the women were in their 30s, that all changed. Someone said something to someone, and someone else told it to yet another someone else, and so on…so that now, 300 years later, nobody really knows what was said or by whom. Either way, those someones and somethings resulted in Bridget and Fiona becoming so angry with one another that their friendship ended. Caput! No more weekly tea, no more chats at the butcher, no more playdates for the kids. Yep, Bridget and Fiona were so angry with one another that they forbid their children to play together.
At the end of that first year of no longer being friends, on New Year’s Eve, each brought out their blessing jar because, yes, even as adults, they continued this tradition. Bridget opened her jar, pulled out a blessing, began to read it. Anger and sadness filled her. She stopped reading and put the blessing back in the jar. She was about to throw the jar into the fire when her husband gently removed it from her hand and hugged her instead. The next day, the husband put the jar back on the fireplace mantle, where it remained untouched for many years.
Bridget and Fiona’s children grew up, married, and moved away. Their husbands retired, and life was slow for both.
One New Year’s Eve, Bridget was 60 by then, her hair was gray, she walked with a limp, and her skin was thin, but her eyes were as bright as ever, and her mind was as sharp as her eyes were bright, Bridget’s eyes paused for a second on the blessings jar on her way out to the bonfire.
Later that night, after the kids and grandkids left with their spirits and bellies full, Bridget sat down to write a letter to Fiona. It had been 20 long years since she had spoken to Fiona. Bridget composed a simple note, inviting Fiona to tea the next day. Bridget had the letter delivered that very night.
The next day, Bridget nervously fidgeted about the house all morning, trying on different dresses and hairstyles and jewelry and scarves and shoes. By 3 p.m., her room was in shambles, and she was exhausted. But it was time to leave. With a quick peck on her husband’s cheek, she left her house and her bewildered husband at tea time. Bridget planned to arrive at least fifteen minutes early. But when she arrived, she recognized the face of the woman seated at the table in the window as her long-lost friend, Fiona. Fiona had arrived early too. Bridget stopped outside the window. Fiona lifted her head, and the women’s eyes met. Tears flowed from their eyes. Bridget gathered herself enough to enter the café, and the two women embraced, tears still flowing.
Eventually, the two sat down and talked and talked and talked non-stop for hours. After all, they had 20 years to catch up on. After a while, Fiona reached down below the table and pulled something from her bag. It was her last blessings jar - the blessings jar from 20 years earlier. Bridget burst out in tears and laughter and pulled out her blessings jar too. The one she had almost thrown in the fire. Together, they read their blessing from 20 years prior.
After that day, Bridget and Fiona resumed their friendship as if it had never ended. They went for walks among the daisies in the summer and the leaves in the autumn. They didn’t jump rope in the winter, nor did they climb trees in the spring, but they enjoyed each other’s company in their 60s, 70s, and 80s just as much as they did when they were 6, 7, and 8. They once again started their blessings jars, and not a year passed without at least one blessing in the jar saying, “Today, I am blessed to have a friend.” And each year, their resolution was the same: to remain friends.
Stars and moon and sun, now my story is done.
Make a blessings jar
This is a fun way to start the year and helps your kids create a gratitude habit. It is also a way to connect to the story about Bridget and Fiona.
1. Find a jar that has a lid and remove the label. A 16oz jar is a good size.
2. Cut a piece of paper that is about the height of the jar.
3. Have your child write the word “Blessings” or “Gratitude”.
4. Decorate the label with crayons, paint, magazine pictures, etc.
5. Use wide clear packaging tape to attach the label to the jar.
6. To add a blessing, cut a strip of paper to about 1”wide x 6” long. On one side, help your child write a blessing.
7. On the other side help your child write the date.
8. Teach your child how to roll it into a little tube, secret message style, and put into the jar.
9. Do this everyday at dinner or before bed.