Thought 03JUN2008

HOW SANTA KNEW
Nineteen years ago, I was going through a terrible divorce. Near Christmas, I took my young daughter, Kim, to see Santa at a local department store. I thought I knew what she wanted, so I didn't listen closely. But on Christmas morning, she seemed very disappointed. She wouldn't tell me why.
During the next year, I met and married a wonderful man named Sam. On our first Christmas, there was a huge box under the tree for me. It was a 12-place setting of beautiful dishes - something that I'd needed and wanted but that was too much of a luxury before.
I asked Sam how in the world he'd known how much I wanted new dishes. He explained that he'd never forgotten the little girl who sat on his lap the previous Christmas - and who told him that all she wanted for Christmas was new dishes for her mom.
Fay Porter - extracted from 'Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul', Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Jennifer Read Hawthorne and Marci Shimoff, Health Communications, Inc; 1997.
If your mouth turns into a knife, it will cut off your lips - Rwanda