Everybody likes surprises...the good kind, that is. Today I had a really good surprise in the mail. A student I had taught in 2000 wrote me a wonderful letter. She shared memories of her third grade year with me. She mentioned poems, journal entries, and composition books. She's a senior now, and in her English class an assignment was made to write a letter to a past teacher. Her reasons for choosing me had me beaming and crying. It was great to read about her life since third grade and to learn that she's going to major in elementary education. She asked if I would like to keep in touch, and of course, I was more than happy to write her this very afternoon. Yesterday I spoke of spring colors as spirit-lifters. Well, this piece of mail has lifted my spirits to new heights!
It was time to take care of some gardening chores. There are three flowerbeds that are bordered by rocks. Weeds were trying to take over and obscure the rocks. Most of these stones came from my mother's former garden. She traveled and collected many over the years. Some came from my grandparents' farm in Indiana. My grandfather would pick up stones from the fields and place them in a bed near the back entrance to the house. That property was sold long ago, and even the impressive farmhouse house was later destroyed by fire. Crazy as it may sound, those special rocks stir up memories of summer vacations, the creek, catching fireflies, playing "May I?" with cousins on the front lawn concrete steps leading to the roomy porch, and being young, happy, and carefree. 
