When you have your health, you have everything, and last week proved that true in our house. The four of us toppled one by one, and we were sick for a solid week. We all had fevers, shakes and extreme fatigue, but very little else, thank God. I had to cancel each scheduled blog article each day because I was too weak to manage the final edit. Cancelled appointments, missed deadlines, and then a major schedule snafu at the end of the week involving two of the nicest families ever. Whew. Am I glad February is over!

So THANK YOU to my team, who kept things going. And THANK YOU to my clients, who graciously agreed to reschedule. And THANK YOU to YOU, dear readers. Your blog and facebook group comments kept me going, reminding me I’d soon be past it all.

I was so grateful this morning to be upright, alert and unmedicated that I stopped in at my favorite French bakery. The shopkeeper and I had this sweet little exchange (I love your cute earrings. Oh, well I love your sparkly manicure.), and that lifted my spirits more than I would have thought possible. It was an uncomplicated human kindness that I must have been starved for over the seven or eight days of being housebound.

Which somehow led to an aha moment about why some people end up in a cluttered mess. It’s no secret that the thrill of the hunt for a sweet retail purchase is why many people like shopping. But there’s also that human interaction that might fuel a shopping binge, too.

Consider this….when we shop in person, the cashier is usually waiting on you. If you are lucky, they will take a real interest in you, and suggest just the right color, do some research to find out if your trinket is available in the right size, maybe even clue you in to a special deal. Sometimes they will ferry multiple outfits back to the dressing room for you, and perhaps even hold your bags while you shop. They will carefully wrap your purchase and place it in a beautiful carry-bag. Even if you don’t get any of these special touches, at the very least, there is that uncomplicated, lighthearted chit-chat at the register.

For many of us, that waitress or cashier provides a very accessible, affordable pampering.

Even online shopping provides a version of “someone else can do my bidding.” Someone else wraps and delivers things right to my feet, or at least to my doorstep. It feels luxurious to have these conveniences, even though it is common in today’s world.

Those small, uncomplicated exchanges, the most human of transactions to exchange a few dollars for my daily (French) bread are powerful. When we are starved for kindness, there’s absolutely no doubt that they can lead to recreational shopping.

We are made to interact with each other. While we can exist without many, many things, we cannot thrive without human contact.

That may be why I ended up with this deer today.

I wasn’t actually bargain hunting. I was scouting supplies for the upcoming Spark Joy Without Breaking the Bank workshop at Habitat for Humanity on March 22. (Details below. Register by emailing here.)

But as I walked around with Eloise the Deer, she just made me happy. (Doesn’t she look like an Eloise?) Then Courtney, the manager at the ReStore, took some silly pictures of Eloise and me. Heather, another ReStore manager, and I caught up and fawned over Eloise. And although I was completely aware that it was irrational, Eloise and I were headed home together. She may not be a spring chicken, but I think she’s going to herald spring on our front door very soon.

Cute thing + human kindness = SOLD

I have some great stuff coming up for you, including several March workshops, which you can view on my website.  I’m super excited about the workshop version of the powerful class, Organizing Your Money with SORT and Succeed.

Some people have asked for a smidge less email, so we’re opening up an option to get only one email per month. Most of you like seeing articles, makeovers and events as soon as they are available. But if you’d only like to get a summary of my best articles once a month, then click here and add yourself to the monthly newsletter list. It might take a bit to work all the bugs out, but I’d love to know if you like this option.

So I’m sending you kindness today.

And I’d send you a deer, but, well, Eloise is mine now.

Stay well and healthy, my friends.