Karen and St. Francis

I posted "A Candle for Stanley" on this blog and in it I promised God I would return to Church the week following to bring the dollar I owed for the candle I lit. I also pledged that I would light a candle for the other 8 people who died in 2009.
I couldn't make it to Mass that week. Shakespeare was right, "neither a borrower nor a lender be."  One of the ShiftShape community, Karen, read the Candle for Stanley, and went to St. Francis of Assisi to hear Mass. She looked around to see if I was attending the same Mass but I wasn't there. When she came into work and told me that she felt compelled to go to St. Francis because of my blog post, and that she discovered "signs" that seemed directly related to her, I felt that writing the blog justified itself. What Karen didn't know was the disappointment I felt that I couldn't make it to Mass that week at all and I was not going to make good on my debt. She also didn't know that I prayed to God to give me a sign that it was ok that I could owe him for another week. When she told me that she decided to put an extra two bucks in the slot for me while she was lighting her own candles, I knew that was my sign. I had my answer and my debt was paid as well. I finally made it to Church and this time I put two dollars in the offering slot, one for Karen, and one for her intentions.