First, the book: Simply An Inspired Life: Consciously Choosing Unbounded Happiness in Good Times & Bad, by Mary Ann Radmacher and Jonathan Lockwood Huie. I’d loved the book in manuscript form and was thrilled to endorse it, but having it as a book to take to the spa where I’m speaking this week is a repeat treat. It’s about choosing joy but without the over-simplifications that the self-help genre often deals in. It’s clear and practical and I’m fortunate to own a copy. But that was just the start…

Mary Anne Radmacher, who is an artist as well as a writer, also included a 

copy of her earlier book, May Your Walls Know Joy: Blessings for Home. This is a lovely little book, colorfully illustrated and sparsely worded, to make your home yummier and more welcoming than it is already.

And then … I opened a small package wrapped in yellow tissue and a beautiful, hand-illustrated card fell out with the quotation from Thomas Moore, “The soul thrives on the particular and the vernacular.” I thought, “What a coincidence: that’s one of my favorite quotations. In fact, I cite it in my book, Creating a Charmed Life.” But it wasn’t a coincidence: it was on purpose. As I continued to open the handmade, hand-painted cards, each nestled in its own envelope, I realized that each one was a quotation from one of my books: she was gifting me with these beautiful cards with my own words on them, and one card with words from Thomas Moore that I so appreciate. 

And then — and then! — there were stamps. No kidding: a set of 44-cent Gary Cooper commemorative stamps that I could put on the envelopes when I send out these delicious cards.

I was overcome with the abundance of it all. It felt like Camp Fire Girls camp when I was nine and ten and eleven, when mail was such a big deal and I was the hit of the cabin because my father’s girlfriend at the time sent me letters with lace sewn around the envelopes, or my dog’s paw print on the front in stamp-pad ink. It was so sweet, so rich. And then: the best of all. Mary Anne, whom I’ve never met or spoken with, had written me a thank-you card. It was handmade, of course, and she said that she was grateful for the testimonial for her book and for those of mine that she’s read. She attached her business card with a yellow, star-shaped Post-It, and nestled in the little pocket the card made: a $2 bill. I haven’t seen a $2 bill since, gosh, that same era when I was going to Camp Fire Girls camp. But there it was, all eccentric and unique, and reminding me that whatever is good now, a dollar’s worth maybe, I should have the nerve to go out and double.

I don’t know Mary Ann Radmacher yet except through her book, but I love her already and want to get to know her better. I hope you will, too. And I hope her generosity, her creativity, and the way she awakened the little girl in me will inspire us all to be generous, and creative, and awaken the little kid in somebody else today.