THANKS to all who’ve left messages of encouragement and cheer about the Positivity Project.  We got home a couple of hours ago and I’m STILL zooooooooooooming!

Before reading on,  I hope you’ll recall a time in your life when you were SO excited about an event and it turned out to be at least 50 times better than you expected.    Well, that’s how the past two days have been for me.

The actual adventure began at 5am Monday, December 13.   That’s when Amanda and I left for the airport.   Amanda (for those of you who don’t know) is a young women who’s important to me in so many ways.  It’s hard to describe our relationship.   She’s been part of the Cheap Therapy team for more than six years.   For all of these years, she’s also taken care of Aslan (until Az crossed the Rainbow Bridge in August)and Blossom for me when I’m away.  She’s always here with me for Camp Waccamaw.  And she’s one of the few people  on the planet to whose nagging I listen.   We’ve been through a lot together.   Let’s just sum it up to say I love this gal.

And this was her first flight.  What a holy thing to witness!

And all of the flights went off without a hitch.  How cool is that?!

So we got there, dropped off our stuff in our room, had lunch and then we were split in two groups. One went to prepare a Christmas party at the rescue mission.  The other went to mix with the folks at the Easter Seals Adult Day Care Center.  AMAZING!  And holy.  I was in awe.  I still am.

Then we went to dinner at one of Hagerstown’s finest.  I had salmon.  It rocked.

The John Tesh Christmas Show was next.  This show ROCKED even more than my salmon dinner.  I feel safe in writing that, ’cause I’m guessing John Tesh will never read my blog and feel slighted that I compared his show to a fish dinner.

One of my favorite reminders from author Anne Lamott is that laughter is carbonated holiness.

John Tesh puts on one carbonated holy show.  Again, I was in awe.  John Tesh is one of those people who simply is who he is – all 6’6″ of him.  He’s honest, funny, talented, faithful and silly.  I especially love silly.  Amanda and I both celebrated his show.

At the top of the second half of  The Tesh’s show, we ten finalists were introduced .  Nine of us received $2,500 to Pay Forward.

And the grand prize winner, Caitlin Boyle, received $10,000. 

Among her many accomplishments, Caitlin founded Operation Beautiful.   The next time you reach for a post-it note, I hope you’ll think of her.  Caitlin will Pay her winnings Forward to Girls on the Run.  I hope you’ll join me in sending Caitlin a HUGE shout out of THANKS for how she’s living her life.

I also hope you’ll accept THANKS from Amanda and me.  We will never forget this experience and all the great people who placed us here (BY VOTING!); our fellow contestants, semi-finalists and finalists; the folk from Amway and Zolaco who organized the event; Mark Gilchrist (who created our Positivity Project video &  is the seed planter of Take the Lake!) and all we met on this path.

Mostly, we hope you’ll continue to Pay it Forward.