Recently I left work early because it was so cold in my office. In fact, I actually went to my vehicle in the parking lot, blasted the heat and just sat there without much purpose.

Realizing there must be something I could do to make better use of my time and to warm up I headed off to drop some donations off at a place called the Market Street Mission in nearby Morristown, NJ. I'm always collecting random treasures in my trunk, but since these had been lingering for awhile and since I had a bevy of Georgetown City Girlies coming to visit that week-end, I decided I should welcome them with space for their luggage. (I wonder if they actually realized they would be sleeping in my vehicle when they got here and storing luggage in its trunk. lol )

After the mission deposit, I headed to a nearby Post Office where I was soon horrified by the cost of mailing a parcel to Canada these days. Merciful mother! I think I paid a postal employee's mortgage and car debt for the next year! Being that it was the time of mailing Christmas cards -- and they don't go for 11 cents anymore either -- I also picked up some stamps. Those stamps would become the central theme of my tale.

And did I mention how bloody cold it was! Thank-you Margaret Lavie--Maker of the Warmest Mittens EVER--for keeping my paddies warm that day, which allowed for me to wander aimlessly despite those frigid temperatures! Yes, I realize I sound pathetic as it wasn't like I was wandering around Nunavit.

In fact, I only wandered as far as the nearest coffee port. It was there that I settled in for some serious wasting of time to avoid the cold weather. Not long into this effort, when I was eavesdropping -- I AM Paul Batchilder's daughter you know! -- that I heard this woman say she was going to the Post Office. Always eager to insert myself in someone else's conversation, I whipped around and asked if she needed stamps because she could have some of mine, rather than go out into the cold.

She graciously -- probably more than necessary really -- accepted the stamps and told me they were for cards she was mailing to her family and that even saving the stamp money would help because she's been homeless since the summer but would be moving into a place January 1. Touching tale in itself.

I went back to attempting to mind my own business in vain. Far too many distractions in that place for me to be still. If you want to be still, you need to go home. Let's face it though, being still isn't something I'm terribly interested in ever anyways. So I stayed.

A while later the "stamp lady" was back. This time she proclaimed "I have a gift for you!" It was then that she produced this ring that is so very unique! She explained she made it out of wire she found by the railroad tracks in Dover, NJ and the bead came to her when she was wandering along the street. It's absolutely beautiful!! I'm always in such awe of an artist's abilities, but to have the sentiment of where the ring came from really touched me. And of course, that she created it and that it was Christmas and all that good stuff -- it means the world to me.

We talked for a while then about where she's at in life and that she's going to be leading a "journaling workshop" at a hospitality centre for the homeless soon. We've arranged to have some journals and pens donated for her program. 

Remarkable how the flame of the human heart can ignite your spirit! And what I realized, is that the weather was warmer when I left.