On Facebook, I started this Project 365, only I started it late, so mine is really Project 358…better late than never I guess…

It is really about taking a photograph everyday…but kind of morphed into a gratitude journal…a representation of the joy in each day.

I really like watching the days collect.  Instead of time slipping away, it seems time is being cataloged ever so nicely…

I just had to note, somewhere…my gratitude for today…whether I am able to get the photograph or not.

When I worked at a middle school not far from KU Medical Center, I had the pleasure of connecting with these two amazing young women.  They were a little bit mad at the world, but somehow found their way to my office door….and boy was I glad they did!  They both just have this inner light shining…so beautiful to see…to know…

This was in 2002 or so…and we kept in touch off and on through the years.  I hadn’t heard from them for a few years and have looked online to see if I might catch up with one or both.  Several months ago I got the call so many teachers hope for…one of them…remembered my cell number…and just decided to check in…they are young 20s now!  It was so beautiful to hear their voices!  They are doing all right.  One has a job not far from me and the other is looking.  They just made my day!

It has been awhile now and I hadn’t spoken with either of them.  Today, I decided to stop in the sandwich shop where one of them works…just to see if I could find her.  I DID find her!  It is impossible to wipe the smile off my face.  She looked wonderful, talking with colleagues, smiling with a sparkle in her eyes.  Wow.  She stared past me, then at me, then boom! recognition and a really big grin.  When there was a break in the action, I got the best hug ever, and then a second when she hugged me again and said it had been so very long!

My heart is smiling.

My eyes are full.

I am a very lucky girl.