pay it forward

a little while back i received a beautiful polaroid  from my friend jodi in NYC.  i was one of the lucky ones who responded to her request for wanting to continue the chain of a handmade pay it forward.  i would have been happy with any little gift from jodi,  but a pola of central park in spring, neatly packed in a sweet envelope she made from a map of manhattan, perfectly titled, " a little piece of new york for your pocket."  SWOON!   i have deep love for manhattan.  deep.  and central park,  oh my yes.   i  tucked that pola in my already framed poster of central park on my bedroom wall.   i love looking at it every day.

 

the chain is simple.  i received my handmade gift from jodi,  then it was my turn to post a photo of her gift, ask for 5 new people to pay it forward to, make something of my own and mail it to those 5 people (i got 6 responses instead of 5 and  happily filled all 6).  the only requirement was that they agree to keep the chain going and pay it forward to 5 new people, so on and so on.... 

i am not super crafty, but i knew i wanted to give a little piece of my home in my gift.  i thought on it for awhile and decided upon a simple folded peace crane to hang as my handmade part, and a treasure from our beach here in maine as a second  part.  since my cranes are a little bird of peace, i figured a heart rock would  be a perfect match.  a little love & peace.  i added a moo card and tucked all 3 items into a simple brown bag and mailed them off to all corners of the globe.   2  even went international, one to finland and another to london.  i waited to write this post because i wanted to make sure everyone received their mail first.  i now know all have arrived safely via snail mail, (london mail is obviously slow, poor xanthe just got hers last week!)  now i am proud to show them all in their new homes as photographed by their recipients.  

it is fun to think that a little peace crane and heart rock from maine usa are now in 6 very different places.  makes this big world feel a little bit smaller.

thank you jodi for my beautiful gift and including me in this circle of goodness.

and thank you kira, keli, xanthe, hilde, deb, and johanna for paying it forward and keeping the chain going.

kira expressed it perfectly with these words, "being surprised by happiness."

that says it all.