One of the best things about life is friends. We all agree on that. And yet our shyness with strangers often prevents friendship from ever gaining a foothold. If only we would realize that the other person is probably just as shy as we are and is simply waitingโand hopingโfor us to make the first move.
Jerry SpinelliShe laughed when there was no joke. She danced when there was no music. She had no friends, yet she was the friendliest person in school.
Jerry SpinelliLive today. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Just today. Inhabit your moments. Donโt rent them out to tomorrow. Do you know what youโre doing when you spend a moment wondering how things are going to turn out with Perry? Youโre cheating yourself out of today. Today is calling to you, trying to get your attention, but youโre stuck on tomorrow, and today trickles away like water down a drain. You wake up the next morning and that today you wasted is gone forever. Itโs now yesterday. Some of those moments may have had wonderful things in store for you , but now youโll never know.
Jerry SpinelliVowels were something else. He didn't like them and they didn't like him. There were only five of them, but they seemed to be everywhere. Why, you could go through twenty words without bumping into some of the shyer consonants, but it seemed as if you couldn't tiptoe past a syllable without waking up a vowel. Consonants, you know pretty much where you stood, but you could never trust a vowel.
Jerry SpinelliI felt alone on the planet, drifting through the cosmos. With both hands I reached out to the night. There was no answer. Or maybe I just couldn't hear it.
Jerry SpinelliDo not follow me! Let's just be fabulously where we are and who we are. You be you and I'll be me, today and today and today, and let's trust the future to tommorrow. Let the stars keep track of us. Let us ride our own orbits and trust that they will meet. May our reunion be not a finding but a sweet collision of destinies!
Jerry Spinelli