Can't Out-Give the Universe

Something interesting happened today and something cool happened today.

Here we are in Castle Rock, Colorado. Since it's Sunday, we decided to check out a church today. When we arrived, someone asked if we were new to the area and we explaiend that we were displaced from New Orleans and looking to relocate. The leader of the service pointed us out during church and mentioned our situation. That's not the interesting part.

As we typically do when visiting a church, we put $20 in the collection plate at the appropriate time. As we were leaving, I noticed an envelope in my stack of "welcome to our church, we hope you join" paperwork. I opened it and saw a $20 inside. I looked to my husband, confused - had we forgotten to drop our envelope into the basket? He said no, someone gave it to him. I turned the envelope over and read "bypassing the hurricane relief funds and donating directly to an affected family."

I couldn't help but marvel at how that worked.

It reminded me that we can't really give anything away,because it always comes back to us. Whether it's money, a smile, love, or ill feelings, whatever we send out will return to us within due time.

But it's pretty cool when it happens that quickly. The $20 we gave wasn't out of our hands more than 30 minutes before a new $20 showed up. What a cool experience.

Speaking of cooooool, this is the cool thing that happened today. My husband was interviewed a couple of days ago by a Newsweek reporter. As you probably remember me mentioning, our cats were rescued by Noah's Wish and we are happy to solicit support for them on behalf of the good work the organization does. The reporter watned to hear about our edxperience.

So if you pick up this week's copy of Newsweek, you'll see this:

Special Series: A Flood of Compassion After a Tragic Storm

NOAH'S WISH Before he called his insurance company, Andy Grant, a resident of Metairie, La., who was affected by the hurricane, called Noah's Wish. The nonprofit—which is devoted exclusively to saving animals during disasters—not only rescued his three cats, but it's placed them in a foster home until he can return. The group, started by animal lover Terri Crisp in 2002 (she has 26 cats and six dogs herself), has deployed hundreds of trained volunteers to search for and shelter Louisiana pets.

How to help: The group could use funds—and volunteers. For more information, visit noahswish.org.

—Elise Soukup, Alice Fishburn and Staci Semrad

© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.