Happy New Year!  I'm sick :(   And perhaps even worse, my son is sick too.  Now I understand the crummy side of being a mom.  When you get sick, there's no one to fall back on.  So it's Dayquil for me, and dragging myself around the house like a zombie.

weebles- Here is one of those New Year's stories that touches me, personally. About 2 years ago, I had a pupil who was a Viet Nam veteran. His father was a prominent doctor in this area but he was ruthless with his son, my friend the Viet Nam vet. So hard, in fact, that his son never could read or write well.

Sometimes, a father in an abusive quest to make the son "better" ends up making him worse. His son dropped out of school in the 9th grade. By the time he came to me and opened himself up about his reading and writing he was almost 60.

He is one of those men with real war stories and has seen things I could never imagine.

Anyway, we worked together for about a year, once a week for an hour or so.

In that time, I realized he lacked confidence in himself more than any learning disability that I first suspected. His dad had told him he was stupid so many times that he came to believe it.

Anyway, long story short, he is now "emailing" with a young man who types with his toes. The boy doesn't have many friends but he does have my friend to email back and forth with. Just the fact of emailing, just the fact of typing out sentences is a profound accomplishment for this Viet Nam veteran.

But, what is more profound is that his correspondence is with someone who truly needs a friend.

I wondered while we worked together what the reason for the labor was. I wondered why we were working together and for what purpose.

I am certain there must be more, but what a start!

I am grateful to have played a small role in making such a thing happen between them.

As soon as I heard this story from my friend, I knew the reason.

Sometimes the reasons come far later than we can ever imagine.

May you find such beauty in the everyday world by doing what you know is right. May you find explanations, such as I did, in unlikely places and at unlikely times and with unlikely people.

Happy New Years.

madkow, hurry and feel better:)

Kat, that was a wonderful story. Thank you so much for sharing. All life is connected in some small way, and one thing a person does, even a very small thing, can have a profound impact on the world at large.

madkow...an old wife rememedy...2 aspirin, a shot of Jack Daniels and the HOTTEST shower you can stand...works like a charm everytime...

        & nbsp;       &n bsp;       &nb sp;       &nbs p;         ;  :o)