friday five: gettin' my random on!

Coming a little late to the game today, but it's Friday, and that means a Friday Five from RevGals! Here's today's edition lead-in:

I don't know about you, but this fall has been incredibly FULL, and time is flying faster than I can keep track of it!

So, first things first. 
Take a moment, and take 5 deep slow breaths...
One....
Two...
Three...
Four...
Five....

Well, I feel more centered now.
So, let's get on with a Random Friday Five.

1. Tell us a moment of blessing that you have experienced in the past week.

Hands down, my blessing this week was was a Dunkin' Donuts meeting with a mom-of-three nursing student at a local university.  She has an autistic son who I learned about last year when the family was raising money to get a service dog for Barrett. Zach the dog joined the family last December, but then died unexpectedly in April from a muscular disease no one saw coming. My heart broke when I learned about this recently, and since service dogs and people who benefit from their presence is something close to my heart I wanted to do something to help. A mutual friend set up the meeting with Tammy (the mom), and we brainstormed ideas for raising money for a new dog. Tammy and her husband also want to pay forward the blessing they have already experienced through Zach, and collect money to contribute to another family who would benefit from a service dog for an autistic child. We talked about the potential for setting up a charity to do this on an ongoing basis, and different ways that their family's experience could return the blessing ten-fold (and more) to others.  To allow Tammy and her family to focus on the family's more immediate needs I offered to put together the fundraiser and do some legwork on setting up the charity.  I feel blessed to have the opportunity to help a family in a way that warms my heart and allows me to put my time toward making a difference in someone's life. And, hopefully, multiple someones.

2. Share the first thing/story that comes to mind when you read "When I was a child..."

 (the real thing)

Besides the verse from Corinthians (didn't we all think of that?)... I thought of a collection of little things that I cherish: my Dad cutting up our grilled cheese sandwiches like a puzzle and then mixing up the pieces so that we could put the sandwich back together; summer suppers at the picnic table on the brick patio in our back yard; setting up jumps by laying brooms across bushes and pretending we were on horseback as we cantered around the back yard; licking the beaters when mom made birthday cakes; the list goes on...

3, 4, and 5. If you were the host of a t.v. talk show, what three people would you like to interview on your first show, and what would you ask them.

Seriously, I'm pretty good at dissing interviewers who ask really lame questions of their guests ("How did it feel?" -- really?), but I'm drawing blanks on this at the moment.

How about this. I would try to find a child, a teenager, and an older person, and ask them questions about their dreams, their happy place, their special memories, and whatever else would make them feel like they were the most important, most treasured, most valued person in the world.