My weekdays beginswith a trip to my local Post Office, I say hello to Wendy our hard-working but always supportive postal clerk, and then I check my Post Office Box. Some days it is empty, some days two or three letters, some days four or five. When there’s an emergency fund-raising drive – the Mansion residents or a refugee family in trouble – I might get 10 or 12 letters.

I love this ritual, it connects me to the world beyond, to the work we are  doing. I get letters from all over the country, especially the West and the Midwest (and lately, the South.) The smallest donation was $1 wrapped up in tissue paper and neatly folded over. The biggest was $10,000, a gift last year from a sick and loving woman who wanted her contribution split between the Mansion residents, my blog and the refugee children.

We did an awful lot of good with that check.

I certainly appreciate large donations, but the small ones – the $2 tucked inside an envelope, the $5 bills all crumpled up touch my heart and inspire me to keep going. It takes  little effort to hit the “send” button on a smart phone, it takes some real effort to write a letter, get an envelope, put a stamp on it and mail it off to me.

I got one such letter yesterday, it was from Joanne, who lives in a small city in North Caroline. When I opened her letter, this $5 bill came out. It is going to the bank tomorrow.

“Dear Jon,” Joanne write, “Enclosed is a small donation of $5 towards the education fund of that lovely Asian girl you are sponsoring to go to a good school. I was captivated by her beautiful smile.”

(She is referred to Eh K Pru Shee Wah, above, with her hard-working and devoted teacher, Kathy Saso. E K Pru is applying to the Albany Academy, we are asking the school for a full scholarship for her this coming September, I have not asked for any funds for her at this point, but I will make sure she gets this $5).

Kathy told me about this remarkable young woman, only 13 but filled with great character and honesty and drive. Eh K Pru spent the first 10 years of her life in a refugee camp, she is an honors student in her Middle School.

Here warmth and smile are very genuine, Kathy says she is one of the hardest working students she has ever seen.

“Thank you for all you are doing to help young and old. I was lucky to receive scholarships in my life and wish to give back in some way. Thanks, Joanne.”

Thank you Joanne, $5 is not a small donation, but a big one, straight from the heart and soul. It means a lot to me, and I’m sure it will mean a great deal to E K Pru and her teacher, Kathy. The two of them are working hard on her application to the Albany Academy, we are having a meeting about her at the end of this coming week in Albany. I am hoping the school will meet all of her expenses.

I so appreciate Joanne’s thoughtfulness and sacrifice, it is precious to come across people who remember being helped and with to help others. That is empathy and compassion, that is holiness to me, the spirit we read so much about but don’t always see.

People are good given the chance, and thank you, Joanne for your great big heart and ethical soul.