Help

Well, I guess I should come up with two things I'm thankful for today, since I didn't get a post in yesterday.

Well, yesterday is easy!  I'm super thankful for the other leaders and moms who help out with my troop.  Without them and their support, I'd be sunk.  Especially since we're up to 22 registered girls!  Last night was a good night.  Kathy, Scott and the American Legion riders are doing a run to a local Vet's hospital to visit vets staying there over the holidays on the 24th.  They're taking donations of clothes and toiletries and coats and the like.  So, I had my girls make cards to send along as well as making some nice, warm, no-sew fleece scarves.  They really weren't anything difficult or extraordinary (other than the fact that we were actually making them) but the compliments I got from the two leaders helping about them and how creative I am and how fun everything we do is, really kinda floored me.  Trust me, some of the things we've done have been so last minute it hasn't even been funny.  (Thankfully I have an extra week to come up with what I'm doing for the next part of our "Breathe" Journey... I'm so not liking this whole journey thing...)

For today, I think I'm going to have to be a little selfish.  Well, maybe that's not the right word, but it'll work.

Anyhow, if you remember back to two years ago in June, I posted a piece about some things I'd been working on, including a very special blanket and shawl for two very special people.  I also included the note that went with the gifts.  And you may remember that I posted about Ron's passing as well.  I had shared the letter I sent to Ron and his wife Beverly (whom I've become friendly with over the last two years) with another friend from work.  To make  a long, and probably confusing to anyone but me, story a bit shorter, this friend, Debbie is fighting esophageal cancer.  She fought it off just about 3 years ago.  But, it's back.  And there is nothing they can do to stop it or fix it.  But that's not what this is about.
No, this is about how people sharing their thoughts can tie people together.  This is about how Debbie took the heart of what I wrote to Ron and Beverly as well as thoughts from others she has talked with about prayer shawls and the like and created her own thing of beauty.  She was asked to talk to her church about why she became a member there and why she stays a member there.  The heart of it all boils down to that she realizes she sees that, and feels like, her church is one giant prayer shawl.  That all the people are the individual stitches and that while sometimes it may be a bit messy up close and personal, on the whole it is a beautiful and comforting thing that is stronger than it's parts.  She was so worried about using what I said word for word.  I told her not to worry about it.  If my words could help her say what she felt in her heart, than it was I who was honored and privileged to have given her what she needed.
She sent me a copy of what she'd written (even though she ended up saying it a bit differently at the time) for her congregation.  It was beautiful and made me cry.  And again, it made me thankful that I could put the words together that she (and Beverly and Ron, they wrote me a note telling me so) needed to hear.  I'm thankful that every now and again I get it right.  I'm thankful that I can share what is in my heart and that it can be heard by people who need it and understand it.

So, yes, today I'm a little bit selfish.  Today I'm thankful that I could find the words that were needed.

Peace to all and may you both have the help you need, and be able to give the help that's needed.