I found a bird sweater, the only one in the store and maybe the entire city, with cardinals, leafy branches, and jays knitted in, not on top. “That’s wonderful!” someone said with no more desire to hold it still in their own hands than they would the rising sun. “Would you like it? I have so many at home,” I satd.

She laughed, “So do I, thanks, no, you keep it.  Shoppers are more polite, gracious and generous at second hand stores where they shop for surprises rather than to possess things that will make them important.

In high school I KNEW if I could find just the right pair of shoes:
1. all the boys would love me
2. I’d get straight A’s and
3. my complexion would clear up, really I believed that.

Now things don’t me as happy as surprises do and good people.  nancymauerman.com