Loving Full-Circle Moments

Today I'm grateful for servant-hearted leaders, like this young man,

and for his school counselor, who snapped this keeper for me.

It's a full-circle moment on two levels:

1. The counselor works in my former position at Westwood Elementary.

2. The police officer was in our third-grade knitting club years ago.

Turns out he's still serving, but on a much larger scale. I love that! And how very thoughtful of Heather to share this meaningful moment with me.

Another fun full-circle moment happened when I got this

special delivery from Wisconsin in this week's mail.

You may remember that after Dad's wife died in January,

I wrote him a letter every day for almost six months,

to try to keep the essence of Flo's mail ministry alive.

And though he looked forward to receiving and enjoyed reading the letters, he only wrote back once. He is 88, after all.

But this week, he called to tell me that he's making Monster Cookies from the recipe in the back of the book (how sweet is that!?), then he asked if he could buy a few books from me to give away, promising to send a check. 

Sure enough, I got this envelope on Friday, with one of Flo's return address labels, modified, of course. It included a check, which has "etc." written on the memo line 🤣, and some stickers for me to use on my next letters, even though my name no longer starts with an N. When I asked about a letter, Dad said, "the letter N doesn't count?" 

A lovely, funny, and super special full-circle;

I can't wait to hear how those cookies turned out!

Another full-circle moment, actually in the shape of a circle,

is this beautiful handiwork from fourth-grade Elyse, a student

in WI who made me a doily to thank me for the author visit.

Thanks and giving all wrapped up in one note.

I received almost fifty of these cherished treasures;

wish I could share them all, but you get the idea.

I believe that imitation is a huge compliment; 

just look at how Ryleigh recreated our cover!

Finally, music is what feelings sound like.

Joshua wasn't much older than Leah is now when he first went to our piano to plunk at the keys and pretend he was playing a song. Now a quarter-century older and an accomplished pianist, he was playing for his niece when she decided to join him and make it a duet. 

My picture of that all-the-feels moment says 

more than my words possibly could. 

Have you had any special full-circle feel-the-love moments lately? What a fun discussion that would be as you give gratitude wings during this holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving week, dear reader;

as always, I am grateful for you.