Thanks Junie--No Charge For Love

A farmer had some puppies he needed to sell. He painted a sign advertising the 4 pups. And set about nailing it to a post on the edge of his yard. As he was driving the last nail into the post, he felt a tug on his overalls. He looked down into the eyes of a little boy.
"Mister," he said, "I want to buy one of your puppies."
"Well," said the farmer, as he rubbed the sweat off the back of his neck, "These puppies come from fine parents and cost a good deal of money."
The boy dropped his head for a moment. Then reaching deep into his pocket, he pulled out a handful of change and held it up to the farmer. "I've got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to take a look?"
"Sure," said the farmer. And with that he let out a whistle. "Here, Dolly!" he called. Out from the doghouse and down the ramp ran Dolly followed by four little balls of fur. The little boy pressed his face against the chain link fence. His eyes danced with delight. As the dogs made their way to the fence, the little boy noticed something else stirring inside the doghouse. Slowly another little ball appeared, this one noticeably smaller. Down the ramp it slid. Then in a somewhat awkward manner, the little pup began hobbling toward the others,doing its best to catch up.
"I want that one," the little boy said, pointing to the runt.
The farmer knelt down at the boy's side and said, "Son, you don't want that puppy. He will never be able to run and play with you like these other dogs would."
With that the little boy stepped back from the fence, reached down, and began rolling up one leg of his trousers. In doing so he revealed a steel brace running down both sides of his leg attaching itself to a specially made shoe. Looking back up at the farmer, he said, "You see sir, I don't run too well myself, and he will need someone who understands."
With tears in his eyes, the farmer reached down and picked up the little pup. Holding it carefully he handed it to the little boy. "How much?" asked the little boy.
"No charge," answered the farmer, "There's no charge for love."
The world is full of people who need someone who understands.
It's National Friendship Week.
Show your friends how much you care.

In ways I can not explain the emails I have been getting are really helping me to stay on task with other projects related to my passion to aide and comfort whoever needs a hand. Working in health care for over twenty years gave me a solid background in what I do now. It also helped teach me about the fine art of eye contact and what it means to a hopeless person when they see that someone understands their pain.
Once I had my awakening I began to notice the special pain in others that I had experienced just prior to its beginning. Certain people caught my eye and demanded a closer look. It was kinda like how if you buy a red car all you notice for awhile are other red cars.
One woman in paticular tormented my soul. I only knew her well enough to nod and smile, but the first time I looked straight into her eyes it took my breath away. She seemed to be drowning in my pain. At that moment my fate was sealed, although I did not realize it at the time.
I had just written my first book, and I could not shake the thought that she was supposed to read it for some reason. I tried to talk myself out of it. How crazy would I have seemed walking up to a virtual stranger, handing her a hand written manuscript, and saying she was the chosen one to read it first. It is around 19,000 words long, well over 100 pages type written, so it made an impressive stack.
Well the long and short of it is that I found a way to get the book into her hands and left it to a higher power to see that she read it. That was a long while back, and she wears that pain no more. I talked to her today and gave her the addy here, so she could share in what that moment brought to both our lives. For the part she played in this drama, I will always love her. For the devotion she showed at my side on July 4th, 2003, I call her a forever friend. Nancy, you were a reason person in my life, before I ever realized what that meant. Welcome to the passion that you helped me build.