For a Personalized Autographed copy of “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME” or “WOODEN & ME” mail a check for $25 to:
Woody Woodburn
400 Roosevelt Court
Ventura, CA 93003
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In-Box Overflows With Feel-Good Emails
As steward of this 700-word space each Saturday morning, from time to time I like to step aside and open the forum up to my readers.
Let me begin today with a feel-good story from Kathy Murphy, who wrote: “I witnessed a remarkable incident last week that I want to share with you.
“While waiting for the red arrow to change on Telegraph Road so that I could turn left and enter the Post Office parking lot, I saw an elderly woman moving very slowly with her walker across Wake Forest. She didn’t even reach the median strip before the ‘Walk’ sign was cancelled.
“A driver ready to proceed toward Victoria Avenue stopped his truck and emerged to warn oncoming cars that she should arrive at the other side before they moved forward. A young man (perhaps in his 30’s), he patiently held up his arms like a policeman in the middle of the street as she passed by him.
“I was glad that no drivers honked horns in spite of the long line of cars that waited to go ahead. It was a wonderful sight to behold, granting me the opportunity to renew my belief in the goodness of humanity.”
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Shirley Carson responded to my William Wordsworth-like “The Child is father to the Man” role reversal experience with my son while visiting him in New York City:
“As an 80-year-old, I tend to not accept the role reversal from my children – I am so determined to prove that I can still do everything I always did, and thus turn down their efforts to be ‘The child is mother to the woman or Son is father to the woman.’
“My children are great adults and after reading your column I have decided to back off and let them be the people they were raised to be! Thank you so much for giving me food for thought!”
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Venturan Dick Holt offered his own change of perspective in response to my column on the art of “kintsugi” and finding golden beauty in daily life:
“Our backyard is full of God’s handiwork and every day I lay in bed looking out through my window that overlooks our backyard which is 5-feet by 8-feet and only 5 feet away from my bed, and marvel at all the things that I have missed all these many years of my life.
“Now, I am laid up spending all day in bed every day and it has given me a chance to enjoy all of those beautiful sights that heretofore I overlooked. Your essay triggered me to look again with a new eye.
“I have hundreds of birds of all species and kinds of through golden eagles and then all kinds of little four-legged animals starting with mice, lizards, chipmunks, and going up through the bigger four-legged kinds of animals, namely squirrels, possums, skunks, coyotes and many others.
“And the pine trees and rubber trees and philodendron plants, along with bottle bush and hibiscus and several other plants that I have completely overlooked much of my life – being a physicist and mathematician and missing the beauty of many things because of my ignorance of the biological side of life.
“Thanks, Woody, for helping to reopen my looking glass.”
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In an email with the subject line “Want to share an act of kindness and compassion with you” came this from Katie Behné:
“At Trader Joe’s at Pacific View Mall yesterday afternoon, the checker (‘H. Peter’ was on the receipt) asked how my day was.
“I said, ‘OK, I guess.’
“He said that didn’t sound good. I told him that my husband had open-heart surgery yesterday and was struggling.
“He said he was sorry.
“As I’m getting money out of my wallet, he walks away. He comes back with a bouquet and said that it was from Trader Joe’s. He leaned toward me and said that things would be better tomorrow. I got teary. Feel-good story of the day, huh?”
It is certainly one bright color in the rainbow.
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