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Do You Believe in Miracles?

  

by: Kathleen

Tue Mar 09, 2010 at 15:11:34 PM EST


(i do, i Do, i DO!!! - promoted by RiaD)

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Bluebluelady just left my home she came with another woman janG she met in the tubes at kos who lives in our area. You never know what strange events will draw you together with people but believe me when I tell you now I consider these women my sisters, fellow travelers in this wonderful world we live in.  It was the first time we had laid eyes on each other but it was as if we had known each other many life times.

It was to be a brain storming session to combine our efforts to stop the nightmare that started when Bank of Assholes raided bluebluelady's bank account taking all her money causing checks to bounce just another assault of bad upon bad events that had taken place which if she didn't get turned around fast she would lose her home of 20 years.

This was a chain reaction of events that got her to my door today that could only be called a miracle.

For the rest of the story take a West Side Story jump with me below the fold........

Kathleen :: Do You Believe in Miracles?
This is how it unfolded.......

It all started with bluebluelady's offer of $5, as much as she dare spare to help with one of SaraR's quilts over at kos, her small effort to help someone else.

This is when the Bank of Assholes came in and took her money and SaraR finds out about bluebluelady's situation.

SaraR writes (link below) an essay with a plea for help for bluebluelady on kos. People respond wonderfully but as things go with a lot of essays being posted it is gone pretty quickly down the tube but a firefly took notice.

This firefly (Ria) steps in and writes another essay (link below) which gets a lot more attention with a lot of people joining in to help.  Now Ria doesn't just leave it there she (being the firefly she is) flies around to other sites to alert people to come and help.  In this effort she realizes that bluebluelady lives in the same area as me so Ria alerts me.

I make contact with bluebluelady and realize she has a great petsitting business set up and she needs new clients, I offer to help her get new clients.

I put ads in our papers, shoot out an email, posting on facebook to everyone I know in the area who has pets and about her situation trying to drum up new business for her.

One of the people I wrote I had gone to Bolivia with and known fairly well but had not seen in a long time.  I did not realize they had used bluebluelady's service and knew her but had no idea she was in trouble.

This brings me to the point of her standing at my door this morning.  She had an email from this client making her an offer for a part time job that would fit in perfectly with her pet sitting business. This client (the person I emailed) needs help with her mother, who has Alzheimers, to help her stay in her home.  They are paying a service to come in and care for her at the tune of $30 an hour for very limited care. Bluebluelady actually knows the elderly mother and has taken care of her little dog before.

She had just gotten the email before she came so she copied it, she read it to us through her tears. Goosebumps the size of mountains as it hits all of us this miracle of life.

There are a lot of details about her situation I didn't go into that you can read here:
SaraR's essay:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/...
Ria's essay:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/...

What is amazing to me is how this series of event started and only in a few days it came around to what happened today. The connection through the tubes to today is another testimony of how we are one in the web of life, a web that reaches all around this small beautiful world.

Bluebluelady shared with us the impact these events had on her.  Each donation, each caring word sent to her, the efforts made by strangers took her from feeling like crawling up in a ball pulling the covers over her head to an energized fighter to take back her life!  Her voice broke as she talked about one donation from Puerto Rico, she knew this person didn't have much to spare but reached out anyway, she knew that if this person had faith enough to give that all was not lost, it got her up and fighting.

It seems in my life so much of the time I am too busy to notice the miracles around me but it is when I slow down and put myself in a place of gratitude that I notice the sprout of growth coming up through the earth, I turn and see my pups looking up at me with pure love, I feel the breeze, the sunlight. It is no wonder that we slip from this place of peace into anger and despair with all that is happening in the world but I remind myself I need to come up for air and see the miracles.  Once I see one I see them all around and life is good.  

It is today, a day of wondering, I am reminded that yes miracles big and small are happening all around us all I have to do, is open my eyes with a grateful heart to see it and be a part of it.

So to you bluebluelady I say thank you for unintentionally reminding us why we are here and I leave you with this gift.......

So my Wondering today is.......


What miracles are happening in your world?

AND What is for dinner?

 

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The story of bluebluelady (8.00 / 7)
I forgot to say that I served timbuk3 coffee which was especially nourishing given that timbuk3 donated $2 for every pound of coffee people ordered mentioning bluebluelady's name.

Yeah!!!  For timbuk3 and his coffee mmmmmmmm so good!

Bear Shake Tree Pictures, Images and Photos


I love that song (8.00 / 5)
Geez. I'm a guy. Can I admit that there's just a bit of a tear in my right eye?

Thanks for the epilogue.

...the efforts made by strangers took her from feeling like crawling up in a ball pulling the covers over her head to an energized fighter to take back her life!

That's what I needed to hear.


[ Parent ]
You are human (8.00 / 5)
sweet dear friend and played a big part in this unfolding the way it did.

The money donated bought her a little more time and I am sure she is going to be alright now.

Thank you JanG and I had your wonderful coffee and bluebluelady had water because of her tremors.

Bear Shake Tree Pictures, Images and Photos


[ Parent ]
gha!! (8.00 / 6)
i'm in tears....
y'know i had NO $$ to spare, recent medical bills & mrD out of work again.
& i felt so bad that i could not send something not even $5...
so SaraR's e-mail gave me chance to give... with the only thing i DO have in abundance--- time
& still i felt i had not done enough.
this essay...
well now i know... really know that sometimes giving time IS what is needed.

thank you kathleen.
YOU are my miracle sprouting...

supper: hashbrowns w/onions, scrambled eggs, thick-cut, maple cured bacon, OJ

"Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger,
how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man?"
~The Patrician in 'Snuff' by Terry Pratchett



Ria you have realize (8.00 / 5)
that it is your efforts that got us here, without the time you spent to bring light to her situation not much would have changed.  This proves the power of intention and faith you have in people.  Not very many people have time or the faith it takes people like you to pull it all together.

You are a master and I say Bravo!!!!!

You see we all have hands but it is you that bring the hands together to make us one........
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Bear Shake Tree Pictures, Images and Photos


[ Parent ]
gha! (8.00 / 5)
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"Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger,
how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man?"
~The Patrician in 'Snuff' by Terry Pratchett



[ Parent ]
But it's true, Ria... (8.00 / 4)
I have never felt so at home anywhere on the Toobz as I do here.  And it is all you: your love, your caring, your insistence on people begin good to each other.

You truly are an inspiration to me...and I think to others as well.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White  


[ Parent ]
Totally agree Youff (8.00 / 4)
With all of it.  :)

[ Parent ]
same here, Alma... (8.00 / 5)
and both you and Youff make this place great, too!

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. ~ Thoreau ... and, do no harm

[ Parent ]
Aw (8.00 / 5)
Thanks Newp.

I hope you know you are one of the firefly lights that make this place special too.

You have one of the biggest hearts I've ever seen.  I'm so glad we are finally getting to know one another.

Oh and I love Youff too.  :)


[ Parent ]
Oh, Alma... (8.00 / 4)
I believe all of us here have huge hearts, and even bigger dreams... and together we really will make a difference. and I'm also so glad we're getting to know each other! much love to you my new sister

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. ~ Thoreau ... and, do no harm

[ Parent ]
(^.^) (8.00 / 4)
yup, yup

it's EVERYbody working together....
♥~

"Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger,
how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man?"
~The Patrician in 'Snuff' by Terry Pratchett



[ Parent ]
I am honored brother (8.00 / 3)
And just happy as heck!  :)

[ Parent ]
erm...make that "being good to each other" (8.00 / 4)
Typos 'R' us.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White  


[ Parent ]
you were a huge part of this, Ria... (8.00 / 5)
which makes you a miracle worker. And I do believe in miracles, Kathleen ... you and Ria are living proof of that!

supper: chicken soup, with onions, garlic, taters, pumpkin, ginger, cassava and lots n lots of culantro (basically everything I've pulled up out of the garden, cleaned out of the fridge, boiled with a couple of legs and thighs and few fresh oregano and laurel leaves)

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. ~ Thoreau ... and, do no harm


[ Parent ]
The thought counts the most, RiaD, and you seem to have lots of heart. (8.00 / 5)
Without knowing bluebluelady either personally or online, I'm glad things are looking up for her, and that they continue on their upward trend.

I know that it's wierd to say this, but the seemingly small miracle for me is that I plan on getting a baby Timneh African Grey Parrot when they arrive in the Bird and Reptile Connection Pet Store sometime in April.  I've been keeping in touch with them via email and telephone, and I got an email earlier today from one of the women who works there with the above information.   I know that what I have been going through with the loss of my longtime pet bird and friend, McGee, is probably small potatoes compared to what bluebluelady and many other people have  gone through, but I had to write about it anyhow, because it's personal, for me.  

Anyway,  I'll contribute as much as I can through encouragement to bluebluelady.

Dinner for me last night was a chicken drumstick, a baby arugula salad, spaghetti and milk.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.


[ Parent ]
OT- (8.00 / 5)
I grew arugula for my GrandPigs last year for the first time. They prefer it before it gets to big. I've never seen a lettuce that seeds the way it does (seed pods on long viney stalks)nor one that has so many seeds.  The few plants that I let go to seed early left a second crop that was as thick as a carpet of grass.

[ Parent ]
I love arugala, because of its cool taste. (8.00 / 5)
Something tells me, however, that it's not something that I should give to a bird, because it's got a great deal of oxalic acid in it, which is probably not good for birds.

Arugula for the GrandPigs? That's a riot!  Glad they like it.  It does seem to seed in an interesting way, it seems.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.


[ Parent ]
Like Ria (8.00 / 5)
I'm sitting here with happy tears rolling down.

I'm so happy things are looking up for Bluebluelady.  :)

I'm not surprised so many fireflies were part of the team helping her.

After the Haiti earthquake the only way I could find to help was the texting thing where they took it out our prepaid cell phone balance.  The cell phones we have are truely just emergency phones for my kids and hubby.  They require that you add $15.00 every three months so we had built up quite a stash over the years that I could give.  

Over at Kos they were raising funds for the Shelter Tents which I thought was a pretty good idea but couldn't contribute to.  I emailed my Kos friends asking them to go recommend the diary.  One of these Kos friends not only recommended the diary but sent an email to her non kos friends too about shelter tents.  One of the non-kos recipients of her email checked into the tents and decided they were just the thing she was looking for to help Haiti.  She bought a whole tent!

I've always loved the internet but seeing the way people can come together to help each other gives me faith that all is not lost for humanity.  That we can come together and make a difference.

Way to go Kathleen!!!  :)


Alma you are more proof (8.00 / 6)
that if we each just do what we can that pulls it all together.  Some can give money but it is the time and encouragement that wraps it in love.

Bear Shake Tree Pictures, Images and Photos

[ Parent ]
Its finding the (8.00 / 5)
right people with the right resources for each situation. In other words, what firefly-dreaming is all about.

You and Ria are my heros sister.


[ Parent ]
i've submitted this story (8.00 / 5)
to Diggit.
please consider "digging it"

if you are not a digg member, plz consider becoming one!
it's fast, easy & a good way to get important stories out to a wider range of people.

"Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger,
how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man?"
~The Patrician in 'Snuff' by Terry Pratchett



You know the whole time I was writing (8.00 / 4)
this I was thinking this story could be a movie.

Bear Shake Tree Pictures, Images and Photos

[ Parent ]
Oh, my god. (8.00 / 4)
It could be a very sad movie, to boot.  A real tearjerker.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[ Parent ]
What happened to bluebluelady was horrific enough, but (8.00 / 5)
the Bank of Assholes added a whole shitload of insult(s) to injury when they raided her bank account and took all of her money, leaving her totally broke, and they did that without a court order, yet!  I'm sure what they did was against the law.  


The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Not sure it was against the law (8.00 / 5)
but it was certainly vile.  It should be against the law...and we desperately need a Consumer Financial Protection Agency with real fangs.

Also, we need to reenact some usury laws.  The banks are out of control.

I'm still pissed that Obama didn't just nationalize all the too-big-to-fails, instead of giving them $$$.  A year and a half later where are we?  They're all giving the perpetrators of the recent near-global-financial-collapse huge bonuses, while boasting about how wonderfully they've recovered -- at the expense of the middle and lower classes -- in what (iirc, of course) Joseph Stiglitz called the biggest giveaway from the poor to the rich in history.  (Looked for the link: can't find it right away.)

I'm not exactly a student of history, but we need some Emma Goldmanns and some Eugene Debs's to rally the troops and put the fear of real socialism into our government & Big Bidness (as Molly Ivins used to say).  Until there are riots in the streets, we will not get our unions back, we will not get the attention we deserve.

And, yes, I hate that it has come to this.  But I agree with Warren Buffett when he said that there is a class war, and his class is winning...and he pays less income taxes than his secretary.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White  


[ Parent ]
Well, you know what, Youff?!? (8.00 / 4)
Not to defend what Obama and his predecessor(s)' policies, but if it hadn't been for the fact that the Clinton Administration repealed the Glass-Steagall law, which, from what little I know, kept the (big) banks in check and prevented them from engaging in this kind of runaway behaviour toward average, ordinary citizens, we wouldn't be in this mess.  Equally disgustingly, Obama appointed people to his cabinet and Administration who helped get this country into the mess that it's presently in, to begin with.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[ Parent ]
Can't argue there... (8.00 / 5)
Glass-Steagall was a firewall preventing exactly what we've just seen.

I thought it would take more than ten years between the repeal of Glass-Steagall and the total meltdown of the financial sector: but they worked very hard and almost imploded the WORLD economy.

If that ain't a great reason to reenact Glass-Steagall, I dunno what is.

And while we're at it: how about Eisenhower tax rates for the richest people?

Rhapsody in Blue is on the radio...I can't stay angry for long...but I will be angry again as soon as it's over.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White  


[ Parent ]
Kathleen, what great news (8.00 / 5)
about bluebluelady!  SO glad things are looking up for her.

As far as dinner:  hmmm.  I want to make ham steak & hominy with a side of spinach.  But...no ham steak to be found & I'm not going to take a bus just for one ham steak.  Plus I need to make a big batch of somethin' I can nuke at work all weekend.

So, no help here.  I still have some frozen chicken, frozen chicken broth, jasmine rice, and coconut milk: basically the same thing I made last week.  But I might just do a big thing of pasta with pesto.  

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White  


Pasta with pesto sounds like an excellent idea, Youff! (8.00 / 5)
Go for it!

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[ Parent ]
another miracle (8.00 / 2)
well sorta.....

that diary ranked #11 in jotters list!
(i just remembered to go look-lol!)

"Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger,
how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man?"
~The Patrician in 'Snuff' by Terry Pratchett



Oh. My. God. (8.00 / 5)
Kathleen, this is simply remarkable.

I do not know what to say, but this is truly inspirational.

Y'know, I've been so involved in my own navel-gazing that I only just now got around to this diary.

My apologies, please, but what a beautiful, beautiful thing.

You and Ria are amazing people.  Truly amazing.

Bless.

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I know karma, thank you (8.00 / 5)
I blog with no one in this area before this the closest person to where I live was Jay in Portland and Digdugboy (who I miss terribly) in Seattle.

I am not surprised by this miracle (you understand how I think) but it is always so joyous when you get to witness the chain of events that makes it happen.  After meeting blue it really is no wonder she is the sweetest person who has done nothing but give out love in her life.  My dogs were glued to her, my big dog Cody gently stood up on his back legs, not touching her, so he could give her a kiss on the cheek, very unusual.  They knew her.

Bear Shake Tree Pictures, Images and Photos


[ Parent ]
The reaction (8.00 / 4)
of your babies says it all.  

I think they recognized a good lady that they knew deserved, and needed, some gentle loving.  :)


[ Parent ]
yup! (8.00 / 4)


It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. ~ Thoreau ... and, do no harm

[ Parent ]

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