OK, here is a bizarre (and also inspiring!) thing that happened to my friend Jeannie and a project of hers, The Prayer Box Project.  Yes All In Caps.  Deal With It.

She had an idea to put a prayer box at the top of this popular hiking place here in LA, Runyon Canyon.  It’s a place where people tend to do an equal mixture of hiking and contemplating, due to the stunning combination of cardio-inspiring inclines and awe-inspiring views.

In this box, people could jot down their prayers on little pieces of paper and put them into the box, bolstered by the notion that their prayer, as it slipped through the slot, was joining all the prayers – all the love, longings, hopes, dreams, and ambitions – which had been scrawled out on similar bits of paper and entrusted to the box by the hikers who had come before.

It’s poetic and nice, right?

So, of course it got stolen inside a week.  Stinkin’ Angelenos!  Grr…

However, that’s not the end of the story.  On January 1st of this year, the very first day of the brand new decade, it mysteriously showed up again, with some of the prayers inside still intact, no less.  Sure, it was worse for the wear.  But aren’t we all?  The important thing is that it’s back, it’s working, it’s serving its purpose.  Again, what more can we hope for ourselves than that?

I’d like to take a lesson from the prayer box, and I think we all can.  Maybe 2009 tried to hold us back, and beat us up.  Maybe 2009 even snatched us off of the path we were on and held us hostage for awhile.

But, that was then and this is now.  It’s 2010 and WE’RE BACK, BABY!  We may be battle-scarred and a little tattered, but we are BACK ON THE MOUNTAINTOP!

PS – If you think this was a cool idea for a project and want to throw some support Jeannie’s way, due to her being the kind of person that would think of such a cool idea for a project, LOL, then visit her at her blog, http://IHeartJeannieMai.com (so named because she’s adorable and of course everyone does!), or watch her shows, How Do I Look? or Extra.  Although, the latter not being quite as important if you’re not a Nielson family.