November came my birthday? No, that can't be true...

But, yes!! A surprise birthday package came for me a few days before Thanksgiving. I had such fun as I unwrapped wonderful surprises like Kind Coffee, two new books to read (I am told they have a history between them, and it started at the ocean--yummy), a new talisman--a little stone hippo...I wanted to put him somewhere I could see him from my computer and lo and behold he landed next to a statue of a woman reading a book! How fitting.

But much beyond the wonderful things in the box was the spirit of the sender...someone I haven't seen in all too long...and we've both had lives filled with 'too much' over these last years. But she is someone who, even from afar, encourages my heart and keeps my feet moving one in front of the other when even that seems impossible. So I give thanks in this time of Thanksgiving...for the gift of God, this kind friend who sent my birthday present and allowed me me experience my summer birthday in late fall....unique indeed.