Help Magically Appears

I'm so amazed at how many times in my life I have a need, and a solution or answer magically, and sometimes mysteriously manifests before my very eyes.

Yesterday I wrote about this fantastic surprise party we had for my uncle over the weekend.

When I found out about the party, I planned to make a photo slide show for my Uncle to give him a bit of a retrospective on his life. I scanned ALL the photos from my mom's old albums this past fall, as a Christmas gift for my two brothers. I have thousands, and I mean THOUSANDS of photographs!

Since I had 'digitized' our family history, when I heard about David's surprise party, I decided to pull out all the photographs I had of him from boyhood (I scanned all my mom's old photo albums last fall) through present time. We have taken a lot of trips together as a family, so I have some amazing and fun pictures of my Uncle! I spent 4 hours one day doing this - collecting all the digital photos of my uncle, in preparation for creating the slideshow for his birthday party.

It took 4 hours to pull out all the photographs, and I had a LOT of pictures. I started to stress a bit about how long it would take me to go through all the photos, whittle them down to a manageable amount, organize and sequence them, and make them into a slide show. I have some major work projects going on in my life at present, and I'm getting ready to go on an extended business trip. I started to feel a bit deflated, because I just didn't think I'd have the time to pull this slideshow together for my uncle. I was disappointed.

I swear to you that what I'm about to tell you is the truth!

The day after I spent the 4 hours pulling the photographs together, and started to doubt my ability to find the time to create a slideshow, I got a phone call from the woman who was hosting the party for my uncle. She's one of his step-daughters. She called to say that SHE was making a slideshow of David's life, set to music, to show at the party, and was wondering if I had any photos to contribute!!!!

I was completely shocked and amazed, although at this point in my life I shouldn't be amazed when this sort of thing happens.

She was going to do it! I had already done the time consuming part that would fulfil her request! I had already pulled out every photograph I have of my uncle... in digital form! All I had to do was burn her a CD and send it off in the mail!

What was particularly wonderful about this, is that I tend to have a bit of that, "If I don't do it... know one else will" martyrdom in my personality! This was such a great example that when there is a need that I can't handle on my own, if I step aside, someone else will step in to take care of things! We never know how (or who) might help us achieve our goal.

The hostess of our party not only threw a magnificent affair, but she put together a brilliant slide show for my uncle! We watched it on her big screen TV... and were all just blown away. She also burned DVDs for everyone at the party, so we could all take a copy home. She did even more than I would have thought to do.

Take a look at how you might try to 'do it all' yourself, and be willing to entertain the possibility that help just might be available to you, if you open yourself up to it.

I learned a very important lesson in this photo slide show experience!