I am a firm believer in the fact that when you are nice, good things come back to you. It's very circular. Well, today my point was once again proven as the truth.

A few months ago I was talking to the lady at my office who organizes things. You know, the lady in every office who somehow manages to have all of the food there and all of the invitaions out and the plants watered, she's not the secretary, just the den mother. Anyway, the art we have hanging on our walls comes from various artists around town who are looking to show off some of their work in the hopes of making a sale. The guy's work we had up for a was about to go downa nd we were going to be left artless. I thought about it for a minute and realized that I had a perfect replacement. A friend of my mother's, whom I have known since Iw as young, is an artist. He just started painting for real a few years ago but is already up in trendy places through Austin and sells paintings for major money. I put in a call and a few conversations later, he was hanging his work up in my office.

Well, now that I am getting ready to go, he calls me and says that I can have one of his paintings. That's right, he let me pick one of his beautiful paintings--free of charge--to have. I could hardly believe it. Considering his last painting sold for roughly $8,000 at a charity auction a few weeks ago, I feel like royalty getting to have one for free! I selected a piece that is full of blues and reds and is all circly and spiral-like, soothing I think. It's a one-of-a-kind, finger-painted canvas unlike anything that I have ever owned.

And all it cost was friendship and kindness...