All my life I have treasured close female friends.  Starting with Mitzi in first grade, who challenged me to be brave (without her egging me on, I would never have tried to jump across that little stream), to Mary in junior high and high school, with whom I engaged in long conversations about boys; and to, especially, Claudia, whom I met back in 1985, who was my deep friend and counselor during the years I was processing my “stuff” with my Dad; she and I will likely always speak by phone periodically.

Then there’s Janet. Whom I met when I lived in Jackson Hole. I was her astrologer, she was my massage therapist. Though we “traveled in the same circles,” we weren’t otherwise especially close.

I left there for this midwestern town, Bloomington Indiana, in 2003. I’m not sure when she left, but a few years ago she ended up in Cuenca Ecuador!

During the covid con we somehow found each other again, and engaged in long, searching conversations during that entire strange era, especially those first two years years; indeed, at one point, the two of us could feel the currents of F.E.A.R. (False Evidence Appearing Real) coursing through humanity so powerfully that we engaged in hour long long-distance howling sessions, working to help dispel FEAR fro the world.

Weird, huh? Well it didn’t feel weird then. It felt necessary.

Okay, fast forward to now, when we reach out to each other probably four times a year, something like that. The last time was days ago, when I got a letter from her in the mail. Somehow, it felt like Christmas. Opened it up. Here’s what popped out.

I called her, astonished. What a wonderful present! And to tell her that the day she had picked to pray for me, March 10, was my father’s birthday; and that I had been thinking of him over the past few days, savoring the fact that I now appreciate him even more than I had hated him back before I met Claudia.

I asked Janet: how many people do you send these presents to.

“Oh, about a hundred.”

“What? I don’t even know a hundred people.”

“Oh yes, you do.”

And she’s right. I do know at least a hundred people, or I did. I could reach out to each of them again, but have not; not yet. In any case, Have you ever heard of a more wonderful Christmas present?