What does it mean? A candle, a dollar, and a water cooler

It started Thursday morning, Eric and I were both working from home for the day so we opened the windows and lit some candles.

One of the middle school girls gave me a honeypot looking candle holder with a honey scented candle as an end-of-the-year thank you gift. I had lit it once or twice before but never thought anything of it until that day.  The longer it burned, the more familiar the scent became, yet I couldn't place it.  Why did it smell so familiar?  And why did it make me have high school flash backs all day long? 

That evening my mom came over to help me finish organizing a few things in the babies room, and I found a stack of old greeting cards.  I thumbed through them to figure out why I hadn't thrown them away.  I noticed that three of them were from my friend Erin, who was my best friend in high school and is now in formation with the Sisters for Life.  

Erin can only write letters a few times a year until she's done with her formation.  These letters are precious to me.  As I opened them to read, I found that one of them contained "the dollar" - a $1 bill that we've secretly traded back and forth on visits or in gifts.  It started back in high school with me repaying her for Taco Bell drive thru on my last day in Tampa before I moved to Atlanta.  Ever since then we've written the date and event of the trade on the perimeter of the dollar.  It's silly, but it's a treasure.  

Erin mailed the dollar to Eric and I for our wedding present two years ago.  This means that in the short list of things she could bring with her to the convent, she some how managed to sneak that in with her.  As I sat sorting through the letters and cards, I found "the dollar" still nestled in the card from our wedding.  Perfect timing since our anniversary is less than a week away!  

{via}

Friday morning I woke up and thought through my dreams from the night before.  I had dreamt about Erin, high school marching band practice and her little water cooler she would carry out to the field (isn't our subconscious fabulous scary at remembering details?)

As I the day went on I lit the honey scented candle again...and that's when I had the aaaah-haaa moment!  I knew exactly why the candle had smelled familiar and why i was having high school flash backs every time I smelled it.

{via}

Back in high school, Erin had given me a Winnie the Pooh candle in a tin, just like the pink one in the photo.  We often exchanged Pooh & Piglet best friend quotes in our note passing days. The candle represented our friendship.  Suddenly, hundreds of memories of our short lived high school glory days (we only went to school together for two years before I moved), our long distance phone calls in college, and our pages of emails in adult life.

I thought it funny that I would have a candle, a dollar, and a dream about a cooler all referencing Erin in just a short 24 hours. To me, this usually means that I need to pray for someone that day.  That for some reason God has placed them on my heart because they need the thoughts and prayers.  So I did. I spent the better part of Friday thinking about Erin, our friendship, what she means to me, how she's doing, how her family is doing with her so far away,  how her formation is going, what ministry she is working in, etc.  

I just hope that whatever she needs prayers for this week that it's for something positive.  Oh how I wish I could just call her and ask how she's doing!!!  I will just have to wait until the Advent letter comes.

Who knows, maybe there was another reason I needed to think on all these things.  Only time will tell....

Have you ever had moments like these???