High on Happiness

I’ve been thinking all day about Mike’s phone call. The story about how he regained his spirit and courage in fighting the cancer that was spreading through his bones touched me deeply.  But I need to tell you the rest of the story.

It was no easy matter for Mike to find me in order to make that call.  Our lives haven’t touched in the fifty years since we shared high school days in Michigan.  My name has changed.  Each of us has moved to different states.

But Mike remembered that he had seen my married name in my dad’s obituary, twenty years ago, because his mother passed away at the same time and her obituary shared the same page in the newspaper as my dad’s.  So when Mike made a trip to Michigan this summer, he went to the newspaper office and dug through the archives—just to find my name.  That and some internet research finally yielded my number.  And so he called.  Just to say thanks.

As I thought about that today, I wondered how many of would go to that much trouble to thank someone for something they had done for us.  I thought about people who have positively impacted my life, offering a word of kindness or guidance, a helping hand, inspiring me with some example of strength or virtue in their own lives.  And while I may have thanked them in my heart, and felt gratitude for their gifts, in all too many cases my thanks have gone unsaid.

I intend to change that, thanks to Mike’s extraordinary example.   That he called during the week when we celebrate Thanksgiving here in the States has given the holiday a special new dimension of meaning for me.  I suspect I’ll think of Mike every year now when the holiday comes around.  Meanwhile, I’m making a list of people I want to contact with my thanks for the ways they touched my life.  I want them to feel the same beautiful joy that Mike’s call evoked in me.

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