What People Remember

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.

This has been a very nostalgic week. I received an email message from a woman I worked with some time ago. Her email message:

I don't know if you remember me or not. I was a patient in the early 2000's, and you helped bring me out of a dissociative stupor. 

I would love to see you again, to say thank you if nothing else. I will be in the your area in a few weeks.

If it's not possible, please know that I'm thinking of you every day with tremendous gratitude.

My heart was so touched, I was brought near tears. 

Maya Angelou said, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." 

I assured her, yes, I do remember her… 

After all of these years, I still keep the hand-made afghan from her in my car, and this lovely needlepoint she made sits by my massage table here at the house. 

Later in the week, my partner (co-developer of Subtle Communication Systems), Joel Bowman, and I met one of his former students as we walked through the WMU Engineering Campus. When she realized who he was, she said to him, "We had to do a presentation and I had been painfully introverted. I realized I had to overcome that to be what I wanted to be. Your class changed my life."

Not everyone we touch will come back into our lives to say thank you, but whether someone is in our life for a lifetime or for a season, there is always a reason!