About a decade ago I was walking through a bookstore and paused in front of some beautiful cards. One of them stood out to me. There was a sparkling starfish on it. No message inside. It was an expensive card. Part of the collection that wraps them in plastic and includes a gold seal with a humming bird. Yeah, those! I purchased it and added it to my box of cards that I keep to send out to my friends or family on special occasions. A few days later I was nudged to give it to a woman I had met through a new group I had recently joined. I kept staring at the starfish wondering why I felt so compelled to give it to her. As I was thinking about what I was going to write on it, I remembered a story I read about a starfish. “One day, an old man was walking along a beach that was littered with thousands of starfish that had been washed ashore by the high tide. As he walked he came upon a young boy who was eagerly throwing the starfish back into the ocean, one by one. Puzzled, the man looked at the boy and asked what he was doing. Without looking up from his task, the boy simply replied, “I’m saving these starfish, Sir”. The old man chuckled aloud, “Son, there are thousands of starfish and only one of you. What difference can you make?” The boy picked up a starfish, gently tossed it into the water and turning to the man, said, “I made a difference to that one!” I wrote the whole story on it. Thank God it was a blank card! I barely had room to sign my name;-) When I saw her at the meeting I gave it to her. I must admit I felt a tad shy and a little strange, but I went ahead and stepped out of my comfort zone. I told her that she had been in my heart. She smiled and thanked me and then the meeting started and we both got busy. And I thought…end of story. The next week I saw her walking towards me and I could tell something was up. She asked me if I could stay after the meeting because she had something she wanted to show me. I agreed to stay and she came looking for me afterwards. She had a video tape in her hand and escorted me into a room that had a VCR. Btw I just had to Google what those were called. She stuck the tape in the video player and there we both sat in silence watching a man giving a presentation. In it he was sharing the exact story about the starfish that I had written on the card. This is interesting I thought to myself. She found a video of someone else that was sharing the same story. Hmmm. She stopped the tape and took a deep breath. Then she told me that the man on the tape was her husband. He had died recently. I don’t remember if it was a few months or a year, before she and I met. She told me that for her my card was a message from him, letting her know that he was at peace. Wow. Was it just a coincidence or was there something or someone larger at work? I don’t know, but I still get goosebumps and I smile everytime I think about that beautiful starfish beseeching me in that bookstore.