One of the most important strands in my thread of friends is *Sheila, who works at the PO and handles passports and easily smoothed the way for me to get mine, and was part of almost every mail / money order transaction I had with Kiota in Israel and Kiota in America. For three years. *Sheila also has an artistic daughter in high school, graduating, isolated, afraid of college. Spends hours online. She's shared some of her artwork with me. She was so sad to hear the end of the Kiota story and why I would never be mailing anything to her ever again. So now we're sharing more of her life, in hopes that something might be of help in parenting her daughter too ... taking full note of how they are >>> NOT <<< similar people. And it helps me so much to talk about it ...

Next, here comes *Tracy, on the bus trip downtown. [Who can afford gas or parking these days?]
Tracy carries a whole bunch of white / yellow orchids. We get off at the same stop downtown in perfect Seattle weather: cold, threatening rain. Tracy asks me if I want an orchid to give to a friend, explains they're free cuz she'd just been out in back of a florist shop at the mall and found bunches of them discarded. Then she started talking excitedly about college.

It's the same college.

She'd had a lot of trouble there in her first year, dropped out, wants to go back there as soon as possible. She lived four dorms down the walkway from Ki, near where my taxis left from. We shared lots of her good memories of school and the highlights of my four days there. Comparing friends' names, the libe, things like that.

So what are the chances of anything like this happening --- at this single specific time on Saturday, amidst dozens of buses and thousands of miles away from the Pacific Northwest, in Northeast New England?

Well, um .... no chance at all. Except one. The one that happened.

Yes I took all the orchids she offered me since I was on my way to the bank. Where lots of other people work who've helped me on many Kiota-paths. And they scooted all around and got vases for them and everything. Many of the budlets had not opened yet. But they will.

Tracy and I shared an address to keep in touch if she wants.

Tracy doesn't look like her at all, completely different height and hair and clothing, except for the excitement and the sun in her eyes.

But Tracy did not really need the address at all. She already knew it.

Thank you, motek.