Catharsis, Coolness, and Other Possible Explosions

I just lost my cool, people. It doesn't often happen that I let down my guard and have a completely uncontrolled reaction. I have to say it's quite cathartic. I was just picking up a pile of papers and envelopes to give to one of our officers to work on a mailing and a GINORMOUS cockroach appeared underneath. I screamed and threw the envelopes down. When Zandy came over to take a peek and I lifted the pile he was hiding under, he FLEW (I didn't know they flew!) and landed on my hand. What happened next would have been a gem for America's Funniest Home Videos if we had happened to have captured the moment on film. I screamed like a wild banshee and my appendages started flailing. The stacks of papers in my hands went flying around the room in a whirlwind. In short, it was awesome. And funny.

I remember losing my cool once in front of a school counselor as we were talking outside because a bee flew near my head. I screamed out "S#%*!" and jumped all around like a nut. I was mortified that someone witnessed the loss of control, but oh-these-many-years-later I just see it as good comedy.

I just had something cool happen. I wrote a few weeks ago about my friend's new non-profit, Raven + Lily. Established by a group of creative artists with a passion for social justice and the environment, Raven + Lily is a non-profit design house dedicated to creating economic opportunities for impoverished women, locally and globally. Anyway, my friend just traveled back to India to work with some women's groups there (the same ones we worked with during our 2007 India trip) and establish other partnerships. For some reason earlier this week I was looking at their website and I felt like I should donate a sewing machine. It just hit me and I made the donation online immediately without thinking about it. Here's the email I got this morning:

Hi Staci!

We're back from India. It was incredible!

You won't believe this. When we were in Mussoorie, Nivedit told us she needed a special sewing machine for her group. She had to go down the mountain to some place that had this machine in order to get the special stitch needed for some items.

That next morning, we checked email on our way back to Nivedit's home and we saw your donation! When we got to Nivedit's home, we asked her again about the machine and how much it cost...it was almost exactly the amount you donated! We told her about your donation and she was so blown away. So were we! We wrote her a check on the spot (we'll get reimbursed now that we are back) so that she could purchase it right away. AND, it meant so much to her knowing that the donation for the machine came from YOU!

Much love,
Kirst

God is really cool.

I've got to go. Not only do we have cockroaches at work today, but the sergeant just came in and told us of a bomb threat here. Never a dull moment...