Chapter 1

In today’s day in age, you never really expect a thank you for a Christmas card. Let alone a thank you from a perfect stranger. We’re all so focused on what’s in front of us that we ignore the simple gesture. Because we are focusing on ourselves or immediate family, we often ignore others who may be in need or without loved ones during the holiday season.

That is why I sent out a holiday card to an unknown man or woman that was serving overseas. I sent more than the card, figuring a post card from home and a little note thanking for their sacrifice would be something they could appreciate. To know that there were people back home that were still thinking of them. Besides, the three dollars I spent to get everything I needed seemed like nothing in comparison to what they were giving up.

I didn’t expect anything in return from this gesture, except maybe good karma. That’s why didn’t even flinch when the popular post that circled social networking sites reminded me to send a card. I knew that had it been me, I would appreciate the gesture. I remember when my best friend Lyndee sent me a surprise care package while away at college. It was a little something that I didn’t realize I needed; a reminder as to why I was having late night studying sessions, without a social life and zero money in my account. This was a gesture that even now I’m thankful for.

Many of my friends and co-workers thought it was silly that I had sent more than just the card. Naturally, my mother Aspen, was the first to first to stand up and question the validity of cause. As much as I loved my mother, I honestly think all the pot she smoked in her flower child days may have permanently altered her brain. Don’t get me wrong. My mother is highly intellectual and is quite knowledgeable. She’s the department head for the Political Sciences department of University of Colorado Boulder where she also teaches Constitutional Law. Regardless of my mom’s intellect, she still has her conspiracy theories for various things, including sending things to unknown addresses.

“Better safe than sorry dear,” she would say.

I wasn’t about to let that discourage me though. It was the holiday season and why not spread a little cheer. After all it was one of my flaws… making everyone happy.

I like to think of myself as a simple person, respectful of others, kind and caring. I like to help others that are in need. Lyndee often times would call me a ‘goodie two shoes’ because of my need to help others. Like I said before, I believe in Karma. What you give is what you get. This was something both my mother and father drilled into my brother, Cory, and I. Honestly, it wasn’t that bade of a concept to teach at such a young age. I was six when my father had passed away, but I still remember sitting on his and mom’s bed as every winter and summer they raided their closet for clothes to donate to the local shelters. During Christmas he always got gifts for the toy drives and he encouraged mom to make extra loaves of [Egyptian Bread] to hand out at the soup kitchens as well.

It wasn’t just teaching us to help our fellow man that dad tried to instill into us, but to care for the Earth and animals as well. My family didn’t need one day a year to plant a tree, or give back to the land. We did that every day with our own sustainable garden, complete with compost and a recycling of rain water and snow. Animals that needed our help besides our own pets were often cared for by us. Because of this, I had many pets growing up and mom had always joked, calling to fourty plus acres that we had as the Makhail Petting Zoo.

I’m thankful for those days with my dad though. It was those days that he would teach me how to set a bird’s broken wing, or how to nurse the abandoned kitten to health with an eye dropper for feeding that led me to the career I wanted. I wanted to help others like my parents. My mother helped mold minds and broaden the way the youth thought. My father help by making the dreams of new homeowners had scribbled on a napkin become a tangle reality with his construction. Even now the tradition of helping is being held. My brother serves and protects the community and I help bring sick animals back to their loved ones with a renewed spirit.

And we did… do all this without the expectation of a thank you. We do it because it makes us sleep better at night knowing that we are being the best human being we can be. Our conscious is cleared and we awake a new, with a fresh slate to learn and enrich those around us.

That’s why I never expected the thank you for the card I had sent. This was precisely why I was shocked to get something back from the Unknown Soldier station overseas. It was honestly the last thing I had expected and oddly enough; the thing I needed most that day.