Feeling a smidge emotional

I'm sitting here sniffing. Although it's "Bawl Your Eyes Out in Between Wanting to Stuff Your Face" Week, I think this would've gotten to me anyway.

It started innocently enough. The zipper on my little blue WW bag broke, so when I went last week, I exchanged it for a new one. There was a form to fill out, and I emptied all of the stuff out of the old one and put it into the new one, and I was finished -- or so I thought.

I just checked the mail and there was an envelope from WW's Regional Office . Great, I laughed. How do they know I haven't journalled a single thing today?

Well, somehow I'd missed a pocket in my old blue bag -- my "treasures" pocket -- when I transferring my stuff from one bag to the other. When I left behind the old bag, I accidentally left some things in it. And so, when I opened up the envelope from Regional Office today, my old friends were there to greet me. (Until then, I hadn't even known they were lost.)

To whoever opened that pocket, found my things and took the time to send them back to me:

You not only saved some of my most precious keepsakes, but because you actually saw them, I feel as if I've shared my journey with you. You saw the cards my good friend, co-worker and "unofficial head cheerleader" Steve gave to me in 2000, including the one he drew specifically for me. You carefully packed up my ribbons, those cards and my bookmark, and you made sure that I got them all back.

Because they came out of an envelope when I was least expecting it, you made me see all these things with new eyes, forcing me to focus on my accomplishments, and taking my attention away from feeling like a failure. Somehow knowing that a perfect stranger saw these things, knows that I've lost 50 pounds and that I have a friend named Steve who delighted in congratulating me -- somehow that makes my past successes more tangible. I have shared this journey with who-knows-how-many strangers via this blog, but you are the first stranger to make me cry. *grin*

From the bottom of my heart -- thank you.

(If anyone reading this knows how to pass along that message, please do. It would mean a great deal to me.)