Dear Reader:

As a teacher, when I came across this story, and the desire this young boy, Matthew, had to read anything he could get his hands on…I was touched. ( *And the generosity of the American people, as well as, people all around the world never ceases to make me proud.)

No Junk Reading

Last year, Mathew Flores, a 12-year-old from Sandy, Utah, approached postal worker Ron Lynch and asked if he had any extra advertisements or random newsletters. The boy explained that he loved to read but couldn’t afford books or even the bus fare to the library, so he would take anything the mailman had. Lynch was floored.

“He didn’t want electronics; he didn’t want to sit in front of the TV playing games all day. The kid just wanted to read,” Lynch told deseretnews.com. Lynch asked his Facebook friends for reading material. Soon, Flores was getting books from all over the world—the United States, England, and even India. For his part, Flores said that he plans to read all the books, then share them with other book-starved kids.

The astounding thing is that Matthew already understood the power of books and knowledge that opened him up to other worlds, cultures, and new understandings/perspectives unavailable to him in his present environment. Stories change lives.

So until tomorrow….“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Kipling

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Resource: “Extraordinary Stories of Giving from People”– Reader’s Digest

Sammy popped by Monday morning to tell me good-bye. I caught the screen wrong with my picture shooting… so the photo looks abstract…but Sammy and I just stared at each other like two old souls.  (*I put out some extra food for him and the “Mrs.”)

Late last Sunday afternoon when I was returning to Summerville from the American Girl Performance I had a text from Luke saying that Chelsy had transplanted “Little Big Red” into his new, larger planter home. He texted a photo. I was so excited I squealed out loud at the next redlight! “Little Big Red” now has room to grow!