Think giraffes

I came home yesterday to a house full of flowers and a huge pile of mail. I opened one medium-sized envelope and found a stack of cards homemade by children, each with a special message of healing addressed to me. Another, larger envelope had the same return address, and I ripped that one open and found even more of these cards, created on colored construction paper and decorated with stickers and drawings and the sweet, unsteady scrawl of children just learning how to write. Some had messages written by older children, some just the writing of their teacher.


"Get well soon"
"Feel better"
"We believe in you"
"Our prayers are with you"
And some personal messages: "Rachel, May God be with you while you recover." signed, Stu the snail-sneezer.
"Dear Rachel, I know I've never met you but I've heard you have cancer. You should still have hope because I had a friend that had cancer & now she is cancer free! Your friend, Samantha"
And one cryptic but beautiful message: "Dear Rachel, You are so brave. Remember always. Think giraffes. From, Cate"

I had no idea where they came from; it was a magical moment. It felt like a miracle. All this love and these earnest wishes for recovery and healing coming from people, from children, whom I've never met. I was laughing from the sheer joy of the cards, from the humor in some of them, and that quickly became tears as the profundity of what had been done for me set in. I am just blown away by the purity and sweetness of this. I spread out all the cards and am just in awe of their power.

I am thinking of giraffes.



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(I found out that a friend of my mom's teaches religious school and had her classes make these cards for me, and I am so thankful to Nan D. for doing this!)