My mother is a card sender, my mamaw was a card sender, my great grandmother was a card sender....we send cards. For any reason.
I have two friends that are card senders too, Amy and Joyce. I can see Amy standing in even the Hardware store looking at cards if they sell them.
"If you want a card, you need to send cards." That is my mom's motto.
To this day, if my mom calls me with the "dead" report, it is usually followed with, "You need to send them a card." (0bviously the surviving family member)
I have a true confession about cards.
When I was in college at WVU, there was a Hallmark store on High Street. I went there all the time. Loved that store. One year, I think I was a senior, it was right before Mother's day. I had to get cards for two aunts, two grandmothers, one great grandmother, my mom and my boyfriend's mom. I had no money. No money for four more days. And mother's day was approaching. The biggest card sending day in my family. They would call one another, they would compare the cards, they would save them, it was the mother (no pun intended) of all card sending days.
So, I did it. I shoplifted. I slipped those cards in my folder and walked out of the Hallmark store. Feeling badly but I had shoplifted for the first time. I made it all the way to the Tastee Freeze on High street when I was tapped on the shoulder. I turned around, and there was the owner of the store. He said, "you are going to need stamps to go with those cards."
My first attempt at a life of crime and I got caught. Yes, I took the stamps.
When I got my check on Friday, I went in a paid the bill and through tears explained situation, my card sending gene pool and apologized. They accepted. This truly was a Hallmark commercial.
The one things about cards, sometimes they show up when you least expect them and need them the most.
Lately, I have NOT been at Peace. Let's see, I have three friends with cancer, and one who just had two surgeries, my friend just buried her 13 year old son while drug dealers live one and several of my girl friends have just buried their moms or dads or husbands and two members of my family have buried their sons. And quite frankly, I have been consumed with the "is this all there is" feeling. I am looking at my bald girl friend thinking "she really cannot be at peace with that bald head and I don't want to be at Peace cause I know she is not at peace". And then there is, "the only thing I have ever contributed in life came in the form of 15, 30 or 60 second commercials, that people hate anyway, except for SuperBowl Sunday,from fast food chains in a morbidly obese society." I wanted to be Steve Jobs or the gardener at Disney World of something. There has got to be more than this.
And then, I went to the mailbox. Tucked into the junk mail, the water bill and the "get your air ducts cleaned for $19.95 flier" was the envelope. I recognized the handwritting immediately.
I expected a "Save the Date" card for the impending nuptials.
What I got was this...
May today there be peace within you.
May you trust God that you are
exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities
that you are born of faith.
May your use those gifts that you have received,
and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing
you are a child of God.
Let this presence settlie nto your bones,
and allow your soul the freedom
to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of you.
And love.
And while I have read this before, I guess it never penetrated my heart like this before.
And I thought that perhaps my bald friend kept this in her pocket and that is why she was so at peace.
I have kept this card in my purse all week. I pulled it out this morning. I needed it. I thought about a 13 year old skate boarding in the Heaven's waking everyone up, and I got my Peace back. I just sat here, on my back porch, in my nightgown, dirty teeth, sounds of the morning and the day coming alive, a lttle rain, a little sun, flowers abound, black coffee and I got my peace back.
My friend retired from the Military yesterday after 20 years. I need to get moving and go buy him a card.
Peace.
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