Sometime around July 26th I received a delightful postcard. It was postmarked California and was signed by Shannon. I don’t know why, but my brain chose to think it was from a Shannon from my past… not the Shannon I know in my present, mostly because I know the present Shannon as Shen – or at least, that’s how my brain was thinking that day and ensuing days. I kept on visualizing the Shannon from my past as mailing the postcard from California after visiting her father.

Of interest, both Shannons are splendid women. I'm going to try real hard not to confuse everyone. I will try to refer to one of the Shannons as Shen, the other as Teenager Shannon, though she's no longer a teenager, but was when I last saw her. Still with me here?

With little editing, this is what the postcard said that Shen wrote but I thought Teenager Shannon wrote:

I hope this brings a smile to your face* and reminds you how fondly you are thought of (more often than you are told.) May things become brighter and happier for you very soon.

*The postcard was a photo of playful otters.

For some odd reason, I immediately thought it was from the Teenager Shannon that I had known such a long time ago. She knew of my painful divorce. I thought that was the reference in the postcard. But the postcard was actually from Journalscape Shannon (Shen), which was incredibly thoughtful. *sigh* Have I confused everyone?

I waited a week or so and then decided to write to Teenager Shannon. The only reason it was difficult was because the memory of her connected me with my tragic marriage.

The postcard didn’t have Teenager Shannon’s address so I sent it to her father with a request to forward it. Included in my letter was the link to my Journalscape site.

This morning when I awoke, I was greeted with a lovely email from Teenager Shannon, as well as her new site at Journalscape:

Another Sleepless Night


A portion of her email read:
I don't know if I ever thanked you for helping me and being there for me during my parents divorce. You were like a surrogate mother to me, and I will never forget how special and loved you made me feel. You are a wonderful person and I will forever feel eternally grateful for having you in my life…

This afternoon I also received a very kind letter from Teenager Shannon.

Good heavens… I was drowning in kindness. :) It's been a ten hanky day for me with so much gratitude for the two Shannons in my life.

The whole point of this blatant bragging of affection sent my way is that both Shannons wrote so kindly of me and I was totally confused about the two. And poor Shen never recived a response of gratitude from me.

Sidebar: *sending gratitude to you Shen* :)

Sometimes this world is so flipping petty I can’t hardly stand it. I get so sick to death of whining and pettiness and intentional slurs and slights… I lose all faith for a nano-second, but pull back because I have so many, many, many, many lovely people in my life who abundantly express affection for me with genuine heartfelt emotions.

Thank you Shannon & Shannon. I already have so much love in my life, but yours is especially timely – especially timely – especially timely. Blessings to you both.

Oh, and about coincidences? I dunno, really. These are the possibilities as I see it:

1. It was a random coincidence
2. I’m an idiot
3. I’m suffering from dementia
4. I’m an idiot
5. A higher power delightfully meddled with my life :)

If I hadn't mistaken the identity, Teenager Shannon and I might have never re-connected and what a sad void in my life that would've been. xoxo