Maria and I were met at Jean’s Place this morning by Kelsie, who has blinking colored lights around her head, and also by Robin with a letter from a man named Wally Mook, who lives in Iowa and visited Bedlam Farm at an Open House a few years ago.

I haven’t heard from Wally in years, but I remember him well and very fondly.

Robin told me that Wally read the blog and send her a check for $75 to add to my $200 to provide meals and food to needy people in her community over the Christmas holidays.

Hoosick Falls, once a proud and prosperous New York country town, has struggled in recent years and there are people there who can use some help with meals and food.

Beyond that, it turns out that Wally is good friends with a doctor who helped save the life of someone who works at Jeans.  I see that circle turning and turning.

“Please accept my donation,” he wrote, “to continue this effort on behalf of Dr. and Mrs. Martinez.”

There is a circle of love, and it widens and deepens all of the time. We just have to plant the seeds.

Robin and Kelsie and the staff would love to have a fund that would leet them help feed people who are on very tight budgets or need a nutritious warm meal for themselves and their children.

Robin said a blog reader from California send her two beautiful wreaths and a beautiful plant for Christmas. She is overwhelmed by such generosity.

With Wally’s donation, Jean’s Place has $275 in its brand new Christmas Food Fund, which I guess I started without knowing it.

I have a new idea. My idea is that the members of the Army Of Good might want to join in this small but very beautiful act of generosity and kindness and contribute to Jean’s Food Fund.

I realize that my own life has a Circle of Love – The Mansion, Bedlam Farm, Maria, the Mansion, Bishop Maginn High School – which is growing and blossoming every day, thanks in part to Zinnia, a mystical Spreader of Joy.

From Cambridge to Iowa to Hoosick Falls to a doctor from the past and back. Wow. Wally is a good man.

I thought it might be worthwhile for those of you who can to send a small contribution to Jean’s Place for this new food fund.

The money will go to pay for meals for people who can’t afford to go out much, or who have too little money for food.

The address is Jean’s Place,  (memo Food Fund) 4723 State Route 67, North Hoosick, New York, 12133. Jean’s has been doing good deeds like this for years, now their secret is out in the open.

This is a matter of the heart and soul, I think, of keeping the circles of love growing and working for the needy and the vulnerable. Isn’t this what Christ had in mind, and what compassionate and righteous people do?

Nobody who works at Jean’s or eats there has a lot of money,  their hearts are much bigger than their bank accounts. Robin has very little money to spend, but she worries all the time about what other people need.

If you can, send a check in any amount to Jean’s Place, 4723 State Route 67, North Hoosick, New York, 12133. The spirit lives there.

At Jean’s, small donations go a long way, thanks.