Have You Ever

made a list of people who had a positive impact on your life and then sought them out to tell them how helpful they were to you? Maybe the Dean of Men at your college, the woman who taught you French, the new friend from a different world than you that picked you up by the boot straps and taught you a new way to live, the aunt or uncle that you could talk to when your parents were to busy, the drama teacher that taught you to dance so you wouldn't be embarrassed at the after football game dance, the English teacher that told you that you had the talent to be published if you only learned where punctuation goes, the cheerleaders that visited you in the hospital at a troubling time in your life, the other hospital patient from your home town that would sneak down to your room to watch TV with you, the nurse that wouldn't let you give up, the doctor that met you at the airport to take you to his office to examine you and then take you back to the airport when things checked out. There are just so many.

I got to thinking about this the other day. So many times a chance meeting will have a huge impact on which direction your life will take. People come into your life, spend a few days or a few weeks, and then you both move on. They often never know how much they meant to you. With the Internet now finding some of this folks becomes a real possibility. If you find them you can email them, write them a snail mail letter, or if they are close visit them. Wouldn't it be great to just let them know they helped you in ways they never imagined. Sure some of them will have moved on to the after life but one of the survivors in their family might want to know just how many people their relative helped.

I'm making my list. Checking it twice. Then I am going to seek out those on my list. If I spend just an hour each day looking for these folks, then within a month I will have accomplished my mission to bring joy into their life through the joy they brought into mine.