This is a rather ordinary looking package. But it is a symbol of community, friendship and generosity.
What is it? It is a rare vintage Filofax, found on a Swedish auction site by an Australian member of the Filofax community to which I belong. He asked for help bidding on it as only Swedish purchasers were allowed. I was lucky enough to win it and tomorrow it will be winging its way across the world to its new owner.
At the same time, a brown A5 Belmont is in its transit home in the Netherlands before heading to its forever home with me. I found it on a Dutch site but was unable to buy it as I did not live there. A fellow community member offered to help, negotiated a good deal for me, and is sending it on to me here in Sweden.
I found out about this hard-to-find Belmont from two other members of the community who knew I was looking for one. One of them is in Denmark, the other is in the USA. I had earlier sent both of them Filofaxes from Sweden.
Tomorrow I will be collecting new 2014 inserts from the post office. They were created especially for me and have a ladybird motif on them. The person who designed and printed them for me sent me a RAK (Random Act of Kindness) earlier this year consisting of beautiful custom inserts for my organizer. She found out my address when I sent her a Savannah organiser to use in The Filofax Project.
It is very heartening when life is full of bumps to know that trust, warmth and generosity abounds in a community of friends who have largely never met. Thank you everyone for restoring this cynic’s faith in human nature.
What a nice post – especially on this Thanksgiving evening in the U.S. 🙂