The Fairy Godmother and the Cookies

I love making my dark chocolate chip cookies. They smell delicious coming right out of the oven and taste amazing. I make them for my husband often, but I also make them as gifts—to thank contractors working on our home, to give to UPS and FedEx drivers who are on the run, and sometimes simply because I want to bring someone a little joy.

One Halloween, I decided to become a fairy godmother.

I made several dozen cookies, put them in a basket, and went to hospital waiting areas, courthouse waiting areas, and an office or two.

I chose those places because they seemed like places of worry. Sometimes focusing on the worst thing you can imagine, through worry and waiting, can be debilitating. I thought that shifting the spirit of the room—even in a silly way, like a fairy godmother appearing with a basket of cookies—could take someone’s mind out of the tracks it was on.

Wearing a costume helped deliver that message. For a moment, I could bring someone out of their current reality. Then, after that little shift, I could offer them a small gift to warm their heart.

The reactions were wonderful.

Some people were delighted by the spontaneity of someone diverting their attention. Some were instantly amazed. I could see the shift in their eyes—they really couldn’t figure out what the angle was. But eventually the suspicion dropped away, and they indulged in the cookie and the smile.

Some would instantly smile. Most would graciously take a cookie and thank me.

I spent a fair amount of time caring for my parents as a child—first my mother, then my father. I think those experiences stayed with me. When I imagined what I could do to make a hospital waiting room better, even for just a moment, this was what I came up with.

It may seem silly to walk into a room dressed as a fairy godmother with a basket of cookies. But sometimes silly is exactly what is needed to break the tracks of worry.

What I really wanted to give was light, joy, perfect love, kindness, caring, patience, and peace.

For me, that is a message of loving hope, directly sent from God.