Time will tell.
Among the very last of the things in our bedroom to be packed up was a very special gift that just mysteriously appeared on my front porch back home in Hutchinson, Kansas one day. I found it after school and never knew who might have put it there. There wasn't a note saying who it was from and after repeated attempts to try find out, I finally gave up (at least for the time being) ever knowing who the "secret" person was.
It could not have come at a better time for me. "Old lefty" was still in a cast, 5 months after my biking accident in 2011. I was tired and worn out with spirits to match. I didn't think I'd ever get better. The "gift" that appeared was a rectangular tin sign in beautiful colors with an array of beautiful lighthouses on it. The one that caught my eye first was the Portland Head Light and to see it there on that sign was pretty amazing.
My plan had been all along to make a solo journey to Portland, Maine to see my very first lighthouse, the Portland Headlight at Cape Elizabeth in June of 2012. I had always loved lighthouses but living in Kansas didn't present a whole lot of opportunities for that to happen. If I was going to see one before I died, then I needed to make the trip to wherever one was. I chose Maine, partly because I'd never seen it before and also because of my admiration for the main character in the book Sarah, Plain and Tall. At first, I wasn't sure if I could really do it but the trip became an actuality a couple of days after school had been dismissed for the year.
Mike took the sign off of the wall in our bedroom a couple of days ago so it could be packed away and once again I felt this strange urge to try and locate the person who had been so kind to me, now over 3 years ago. It appears as though that person is still out there and perhaps some day I will find out.
So to "whomever you are", you made my dismal day 100% better that January afternoon of long ago. I want you to know how much I appreciated it and that I have taken good care of it since that day. It has gone with me in the journey from the flatlands of Kansas and over the Big Mountain, down to life for the past two years in southwestern Colorado. It is now packed and ready to go in the journey back over that Big Mountain and down to the plains of the Lone Star state.
It would be nice to know who the person was but in the meantime, I shall wait. I went back in my blogposts for that year and found the one that I had written the day I received it. I'm reprinting it below if you would care to read once again. I do hope that the person who gave it to me was the recipient themselves of a gift of kindness from another.
In this life of ours, a little kindness goes a long, long ways.
I never forgot.
From Thursday, January 19th of 2012~written back in Kansas. It was the 211th post out of 801 that I have made in this blog since it began in May of 2011.
To whomever you are......
It caught my eye, first thing this late afternoon as I stepped on to my porch after a long day at school. It was so obviously out of place and at first I thought it looked like one of the very many seed catalogues that seem to make their way to my house each and every day as of late.
The closer I studied it, the more I realized that "it" wasn't a seed catalogue at all, but rather something totally different. The good "lighthouse" fairy had stopped by sometime during the day and left a beautiful tin sign, filled with 5 different lighthouses. Front and center amongst them was MY lighthouse, the Portland Head lighthouse in Maine...the one I shall be seeing come this June. Friends, what a shock to find it there waiting on me to get home from school.
I have absolutely no idea how it got there....no note to be found with it. But whoever left it for me knew 2 things...where I live and how much I love lighthouses. Other than that, the mystery remains as to how it found its way to my 14th Street porch. So to that unknown person who left it there for me, I say this...
Dear Friend, How on earth did you know I needed to see this waiting for me as I got home from school today? I must be really transparent at times. "Old-lefty" was aching, my body was tired and worn out, and my mind full of a thousand things to be decided in the months ahead. But the minute I saw the sign, things changed. To know that out there somewhere was a friend who cared enough to make the connection between me and the lighthouse sign, warmed my heart and lifted my ever sinking spirit. And my attitude improved a hundred fold. You may not realize it, but you helped me in an additional way.
Don't know if you noticed it or not, but at the top of the sign you chose it says -"Lighthouses-Beacon in the Night" and the minute I read it, I finally realized why it is that lighthouses are so important to me. My life has taken me to some very dark and scary places, just like the ships that mariners navigate in the sea. I have been in "the belly of the whale" and to quote my good friend, "It stinks in there." The road has gotten kind of rocky at times and suffice it to say, I've been lost more than twice. :) But just like the lighthouse saves the sailors from a sometimes "certain" demise, God has sent people to me here on earth to save ME from myself as well. And whoever you are, it surely would appear that you are one of those folks. Just in case I never learn who you are (and given my run of luck trying to figure out life's mysteries, that's probably going to be the case) I wish to say "thank you" tonight for making my day a whole lot brighter. No matter what happens to me in the months ahead, no matter how many things I give up to "travel lighter", I promise you that your lighthouse sign will ALWAYS be in the pile of belongings marked "Over my dead body!" Have a good night's sleep dear friend and I hope that someday someone is as kind to you as you have been to me this day. As Always, Peggy
The closer I studied it, the more I realized that "it" wasn't a seed catalogue at all, but rather something totally different. The good "lighthouse" fairy had stopped by sometime during the day and left a beautiful tin sign, filled with 5 different lighthouses. Front and center amongst them was MY lighthouse, the Portland Head lighthouse in Maine...the one I shall be seeing come this June. Friends, what a shock to find it there waiting on me to get home from school.
I have absolutely no idea how it got there....no note to be found with it. But whoever left it for me knew 2 things...where I live and how much I love lighthouses. Other than that, the mystery remains as to how it found its way to my 14th Street porch. So to that unknown person who left it there for me, I say this...
Dear Friend, How on earth did you know I needed to see this waiting for me as I got home from school today? I must be really transparent at times. "Old-lefty" was aching, my body was tired and worn out, and my mind full of a thousand things to be decided in the months ahead. But the minute I saw the sign, things changed. To know that out there somewhere was a friend who cared enough to make the connection between me and the lighthouse sign, warmed my heart and lifted my ever sinking spirit. And my attitude improved a hundred fold. You may not realize it, but you helped me in an additional way.
Don't know if you noticed it or not, but at the top of the sign you chose it says -"Lighthouses-Beacon in the Night" and the minute I read it, I finally realized why it is that lighthouses are so important to me. My life has taken me to some very dark and scary places, just like the ships that mariners navigate in the sea. I have been in "the belly of the whale" and to quote my good friend, "It stinks in there." The road has gotten kind of rocky at times and suffice it to say, I've been lost more than twice. :) But just like the lighthouse saves the sailors from a sometimes "certain" demise, God has sent people to me here on earth to save ME from myself as well. And whoever you are, it surely would appear that you are one of those folks. Just in case I never learn who you are (and given my run of luck trying to figure out life's mysteries, that's probably going to be the case) I wish to say "thank you" tonight for making my day a whole lot brighter. No matter what happens to me in the months ahead, no matter how many things I give up to "travel lighter", I promise you that your lighthouse sign will ALWAYS be in the pile of belongings marked "Over my dead body!" Have a good night's sleep dear friend and I hope that someday someone is as kind to you as you have been to me this day. As Always, Peggy
No comments:
Post a Comment