The Reason I'm SO Grateful For Sleepy Hollow

The further away I get from it, the more I realize that, for me, Sleepy Hollow, wasn't about being part of the production.  I wasn't there to "do a show".  Heaven knows, I was barely in the show. 

I really think that the most important reason for me to be in the show was to get to know this guy...

This is my cousin, Garrett.  He's pretty cool.  Even cooler than he looks in this picture, if you can believe it.

Many of you might be thinking, "You had to do a show to get to know your cousin?!  Shame on you!"  Give me a second to defend myself, okay?  Garrett is 10 years younger than me.  Almost exactly 10 years, in fact.  And I have A LOT of cousins, especially on that side of the family.  And usually, I "hang out with" the ones that are closer to my age.  After all, those are the ones I grew up with(come on folks!  I was pretty much grown up by the time this kid became "fun"). 

But fate threw us together for Sleepy Hollow.  And I'm oh so very grateful!  He's quirky and funny.  And like any little brother-type(10 years younger, remember?), he has his moments when I want to slug him.  But, as a fellow oldest-child, I have to say, he's pretty awesome.

He left on a mission just a few days after Sleepy closed.  I've been a super amazing cousin and have written him...three times.  That's right.  I'm pretty amazing myself.  Anyway, the letters I get back from him are perfect and exactly what I've needed on the very day I get them.  The first letter arrived on a truly awful day.  I was just about to throw in the towel and give up on life(it sounds so dramatic now, but it was a REALLY bad day).  He didn't know what was going on in my life, and yet, he said exactly what I needed to hear.  It was seriously a turning point.  And whenever I'm struggling, I pull that letter out and read it again just because I need the reminder. 

Today, I got home and the mail was on the counter.  It included a couple items from the University of Utah(that happens now that I've been accepted and all).  And there was a letter from Garrett.  He's a really busy missionary and I'd written him a while back and wasn't particularly looking for a letter, but it was a welcome surprise.  So I took a time out and tore it open.  And sure enough, it said the very thing I needed to hear. 

You see, I decided on Sunday that my control-freak personality was really getting in the way of my happiness.  I decided that I needed to exercise more patience and faith.  And I remembered my little plaque(it's packed away in some box in my Aunt's house) with the quote from Neal A. Maxwell "Faith in God includes Faith in His timing."  Oh yeah.  His timing.  Not mine.  Living a world of instant gratification doesn't really help with the whole patience thing.  And what did Garrett have to say?  Well, in all the wisdom of his 19 years(10 fewer than me) and the inspiration of a faithful missionary, he told me that he'd learned that He has the power and everything works according to His timing and unfortunately our timing doesn't always coincide. 

I just had to smile, shake my head and say a silent prayer of gratitude to Heavenly Father for putting both Garrett and I in Sleepy Hollow.