Last summer while visiting Germany, I met a very special person. We spent one beautiful Sunday afternoon together and opened up to each other like we had been close friends for a long time. We made plans to meet again that night, but she could not. The next morning I left for Berlin. She wanted to come see me, but I could not stay. I was returning home to America.
We kept in touch and I wanted to do something special for her birthday. I learned about The Giving Keys when she 'liked' their page on Facebook. And so I decided to have a key made for her. In my dresser drawer I had an old key to a lab I had closed many years before. I had it engraved with "Glück," the German word for good luck or good fortune. I made a card for her written in German. I needed to have another friend correct my grammar because my German is very bad. I sent her the key but did not insure the package. No money could replace it if it were lost - and then as luck would have it, the package was lost. She never received it.
So this summer, before I returned to Germany, I had another old key engraved with "Glück." I made another copy of her card and delivered it in person when she came to visit me in Berlin.
Translated into English the card read:
With this present I hope to return a bit of "Glück" to you. "Glück" can for everyone mean something different. For me "Glück" means coming to know someone like you. Kind and caring. Imaginative and funny. Intelligent and articulate. Inquisitive and insightful. Someone who encourages me as no other before.
You know, of course, that this key is not yours to keep. I trust you will find someone who needs a bit of "Glück" in their life. Perhaps a good friend who is feeling overwhelmed. Or even someone a long way from home who needs a friend. I hope that when you give this key away, it will bring you joy, like the joy I feel today - a joy you will remember forever.
-Jim
