A Special St John's Day

Liturgy was nice this morning

and I talked to some friends afterwards,

which was also nice... esp. after not seeing anyone for so long...

***

After liturgy we ordered takeout from 2 different restaurants!

We had delicious Thai green curry today with Talipia!

(We are still in the Apostle's fast and since St John's day is today

it is a fish day, so this was a real treat, and we love curry!)

I also got some middle eastern food for the weekend...

Mr Husband has tomorrow off and we hope to do some library reorg

and (loosely) cataloging... 

I am so happy to have food that is easy to prepare...

this makes it feel like a real holiday weekend for me as well!

***

So I ended up with a really neat surprise...

I had bought 2 books from thrift books... and the one was 

marked an 'acceptable copy' of Q's legacy by Helene Hanff,

the author of 84 Charing Cross Road,

which (84 C C Road that is...)

is a lovely book about her writing to this address in London,

which was a bookshop with antiquarian books...

she sends them food as the food rationing in England was still going on,

post-WWII.

So, this other book, Q's Legacy, that I had just bought by Hanff came 

and, without even opening the bag,

I put it in another bag and placed it in the freezer for a few days,

as we do this to be sure of not having bug infestations.

So after we got home today, 

(we went grocery shopping too), I got the 2 books out and opened then....

I was opening the Q's Legacy by Hanff at our dining-room table 

and exclaimed to my Husband, upon opening it,

as this is what I saw:

It was SIGNED by Helen Hanff!!!

I was so excited!!! Had no idea!!!

THEN I opened to the first page,

not having noticed the staples showing on the page that you can see above...

and this is what I saw next...(!)

A letter FROM Helene Hanff!!!!!! to the library of the organization

that gave her the award...

To say I was overjoyed, flabbergasted and surprised is about right!

I felt like God has given me a special gift on St John's day!

***

(Of course it's always sad when you realize a library has

discarded a book that you find to be really special... makes me 

wonderful what happened to the library and why they would not want this book...

but then a reflection on current educational currents could sadly answer that question...)

***

Amazingly, this book cost me $3.99... ! 

***

So that was really special for us! 

I read some of it to Mr Husband already and he really enjoyed it...

Hanff has this great sense of humour when telling a story...

***

It was wonderful to just heat up delicious leftovers for dinner...

So today was a pretty happy day,

the best one I have had in a good few weeks,

a real blessing, miracle, of a day.

***

Here is a video about St John and how people love him today

and how God answers prayers... 

I know so many are struggling.

We are all struggling.

Let's not give up and look to Christ. 

I read simple words the other day about how

our prayers are not in vain,

no matter how great our struggle.

May God help us...