I have a friend who is the great writer of what I call "love notes". Periodically she will write a card or letter…with real ink and real paper…and tell me how much she cares about me, and that she will never stop. This is, I believe, a rare act these days. She will also leave phone messages at odd times of the day telling me to have a good day, to keep the faith, to smile.

She must be traveling this past week because she sent my birthday card….early. On the back of the card she wrote: Do Not Open….Not Until May 22nd….Stop!…Wait! Normally, if it were anyone else, I would have just opened it anyway. What is the difference of one or two days after so many birthdays?

But in the case of this friend, I knew it would make a difference to her. She would like to know that I received her greetings on my actual birthday…not before, not after. So I waited. I was not disappointed. The card, written in purple ink, told me how much I meant to her, how great birthdays are…especially after a certain age, and that…here it came again…she would care about me forever and ever.

Her words always bring me up short. What did I ever do to deserve this? Also, why, when this brings me so much joy, am I not returning the favor to all the people I feel this way about? She is such a mentor of kindness and goodness….such a messenger of love.

What she gives to me…and to so many others(they’ve told me I’m not special!)takes almost no money, very little time, minimal effort. And yet it has the power to lift an ordinary day to new heights, to bring holiness into the mundane.

May God bless all those who spread love and goodness in the world through their words, their actions, their effort, their time.And may God especially bless Holli.