Dear Helen & Stuart,

Since about 7:00pm Dallas time last night, I’ve been in between “speechless” and “tears”, shaking my head with hand over mouth in complete and total disbelief. Please also know exactly how poignant, powerful, and meaningful the beyond thoughtful gesture was to my husband, as well.

Over the last few years, my “process” has taken me to some of the darkest and loneliest places. Hmm, wait, Stuart, did you happen to know this already? Lol. So, the search to find “me” was both tragic and beautiful, but yes, I did, indeed, “find me”. Along with everything else I’ve discovered about myself, I’ve also discovered that one of my purposes in this life is to reach out to the broken, lost, and shattered people that happen to cross my path and metaphorically wrap them in the big cozy blanket of knowing they are not at all alone. My heart literally aches when I see another human being suffering and wish I had a magic wand to just “bop” everyone through their healing.

There’s an organization here in Dallas called “Life Enrichment Boot Camp“. People who are struggling with mental wealth or relationship issues walk through the doors on a Wednesday night and leave a few days later feeling refreshed, renewed, and “free” from their emotional baggage. They learn to forgive those who have hurt them, and, most importantly, learn to forgive themselves for simply being human. It’s the same boot camp that I was literally dragged to about four years ago as a last ditch effort to help me pull my own head out of my ass, because even the finest of, err, “facilities” in this world didn’t quite get the job done. It was there at the camp where I began to truly find healing and “freedom” from my jaded past. Meanwhile, four years later, now I volunteer at this camp as often as I can and “give back” to the same system that help me save my own damn life.

That being said, I want you to know that for me, being at camp on those weeks isn’t always easy. . It takes everything I have to stand surrounded by a 100 or more people that often are only inches away from the same “Death’s Door” threshold that I was standing at when I walked into that boot camp. It drains the life out of me just about every time, because as I have already said, for whatever reason I, as a human being, and very much physically affected by other people’s pain. It’s quite overwhelming to hear the never-ending stories, tragedies, and traumas. By the time Saturday afternoon rolls around and all of the new-found joys and freedoms of the campers are ringing loud in the halls of the boot camp, I’m ready to just run out the doors, speed home as fast possibly, take a long, hot bath, crawl into bed, and literally hide underneath the covers until Sunday morning. That’s how much it wears me out! Still, for all the emotional energy it drains me of, the reward of knowing that I’ve helped change lives is worth every single tear I secretly shed for those people.

Imagine the irony, then, when Zack found that package at on doorstep last night. You see, this particular boot camp was tougher than usual, so, on my way home yesterday afternoon I couldn’t stop crying, and remember driving down the road and thinking to myself:

My gosh! Is any of this worth it? Will any of these people ever remember me? Will ANY of the people I’ve reached out to in my lifetime think of me one day and smile? Is anything that I’m trying to accomplish really going to matter, and will I have truly made a positive impression on even one human being’s life before I leave here?

Yes, indeed, this is the conversation I was having with myself when I was on the way home from boot camp. So, I got home from camp around 4pm yesterday, and the plan was “supposed to be” that I take a bath and a small nap so that when Zack got home at 7pm we could maybe catch a movie and a bite. Not to be! Once Zack called at 6 to say he was headed home, I told him that I’d had a very rough camp this time, that I was physically and emotionally drained, and that all I wanted was to stay in bed. In fact, I couldn’t even manage an appetite, so I asked if he minded to pick himself up something to eat for dinner. He patiently agreed, and an hour later walked into our bedroom (where I was STILL laying on the bed in the same clothes I wore to camp, because, again, I was literally too smashed to move or even take that much-awaited bath) and greeted me with the most beautiful arrangement of flowers, a big kiss, a hug, and a question.

Hey honey, did you know there’s a huge package for you at the front door?

A minute later he walks back into the room with this GINORMOUS package in his arms,

Um, honey, have you been shopping on the internet? This is from Ireland? Silver Hill Foods? Do you have any idea?

I sat up in the bed and my jaw hit the ground! WHAT THE HELL? I couldn’t speak! Literally, my jaw was stuck on the floor with BOTH my hands covering my mouth as I stood there physically stunned and immobile.

You have no idea what you’ve done! For the record, I was just kidding with that post! Really? You did this for me? Stuart and Helen, please know that with the exception of my husband and my children, no one has ever “done or given” to me in such a way as this. NEVER EVER EVER! Not in this way. And of all things in my life that I hold dearest? Yes, I am truly the girl who hid underneath a comforter (never as nice as these though) for so many years that I cannot even tell you. It used to be the only place I felt safe – “underneath a comforter”. I have always loved and craved that cozy, yummy envelopment, and NO WAY I will ever understand why you did this for me.

I will never forget this and I will never be able to properly show my gratitude. My husband even got a little teary-eyed, by the way. No one has ever done anything like this for him either!

You see, honey, you HAVE made some positive impressions on people, just like I’m always trying to tell you!

These gifts you have given me and my family are more valuable and priceless than even a bag full of gold, and we will treasure these for as long as we are alive on this earth. It’s not just “the blankets”, it’s the thought. Someone thought of ME this time! SOMEONE THOUGHT OF ME! I love you both dearly and thank you, thank you, thank you so much! We cannot wait for the day that either we are all in Ireland or you are all here in the States. Our humble home will always be yours when you are near Dallas here you will be treated like royalty!

~ Love The Williamsons!