Month: April 2013

Every now and then you find someone who reminds you that life is pretty good, just because of who they are. I met someone who made me very happy this past Saturday.

I’d gone to the Carroll County Agricultural Center for their Easter Farmer’s market to see if there was a new wreath for my door, or maybe some spring plants for the yard. There were candies and cakes and more baked goods than you could shake a stick at, but there were also some crafts.

A banner on the wall announced that the two tables which had the most adorable paper crafts, belonged to Sharon’s “Gone to the Dogs”. Everything appealed to me. The colors, the prices, the neatly tied ribbons and the creative message boards and photo frames. Even the small bags of candy were attractively packaged. It was a field day for someone who has a stationary addiction the way I do. Thank you cards, and note pads are a true weakness of mine!

While I was looking at her items, Sharon came around the table and began to talk about her “hobby”, which she said might actually be more of a curse, just because it begins to take over. She was happy and bubbly and her demeanor reminded me of someone else I knew, however, just a tad gentler. She mentioned that she had taught school for 40 years and she and a friend had collected so many tools and gadgets that she felt like she had to use them and since she could only give so many cards to her sister-in-law, she’d decided she’d try to sell a few. You could tell she’d put thought into her display, just as she had in all her items.

I mentioned that I really enjoyed sculpting with fimo clay, but didn’t like to make things anymore because I had no where for them to go, nor anyone to give them to. Without hesitation, she picked up a card and offered to share a table with me if I wanted to display some items with her. Well now, that was pretty nice of her!

I found some really cute boxed note cards that I thought would be a nice gift for the parent volunteers in the chorus, and in keeping with my attempt to keep my money local, I bought 5 sets from her along with two baggies of candy for the two “local” children I’d be seeing soon. She was so happy she had a customer – and said so – she was glowing. She kept saying how happy she was that “someone likes my stuff!” and “thank you for renewing my hope that this might work!”  But what floored me was when she said, “Please make your check payable to the Humane Society.”

Wha?

She said that she doesn’t take any money for the items she makes. She only wants the money from her sales to go 100% to the Humane Society. She had a reason to make items, the animals were supported, I got a tax break and everyone was in a pay-it-forward win-win situation! WOO HOO!! I can’t tell you how frigging happy this made me. I could have hugged that little woman for being exactly the most giving and loving person. And I’m glad I wiped out her boxed set collections because now she has a reason to sit down and play with her hobby again and the puppies and kitties got a nice donation check!!