Mystery Giveaway...and Ramblings on the Number 13

You can win something from Scribbleprints over at Monkey's Mamma...I'm not telling you what though! It's a surprise! She's giving away a mystery box full of $275 worth of goodies from 13 shopkeepers including me! So head on over to enter to win! The giveaway goes through November 10!

Now, a few of you might be thinking "Hmmm...it says ETSY giveaway, but Gale doesn't sell through ETSY." Yes, that's true...but no, I haven't joined ETSY. She named it that because 12 out of the 13th shopkeepers who participated had ETSY shops. Guess who's the 13th!

This leads me to a bit of "me" trivia. Did you know that I actually like the number 13? Many people think of 13 as an un-lucky number. Now, I don't really believe in luck (providence, yes...luck, no). So, now I wouldn't say it was lucky or unlucky, but when I was a kid I thought it was a lucky number, and there's a story about that.

I liked to collect old and unusual buttons as a kid (among many other things I collected then). It all started with a box full of beautiful old buttons that were being sold for a quarter each at this wonderful shop in California called "The Sea" Can't remember what city it's in now, but it's an amazing place...they have a whale skeleton on the wall, shells inlaid into the floor, and hundreds of nautical nick-knacks. Not sure how buttons fit into all of that but they were selling them and I bought some, and that's how my button collection started.

After that I started going to antique shops to try to find more. That takes us to Friday the 13th in 4th grade. After school that day, my mom took me to an antique shop. Inside I found some pretty glass buttons with flowers painted on them, and asked the shopkeeper how much they were. "Free," she said. "You can take them."

Next door was a different antique shop, and they also had some buttons. I found another one I liked..a little black button with a fake diamond set it it. Again, I asked the shopkeeper how much it was, and he too said I could keep it.

So, I decided that the whole Friday 13th things was a bunch of bunk...that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the number 13.

Much later, reading my Bible, I discovered another reason to like the number 13. A chapter many of you will be familiar with, the chapter on love, is 1 Corinthians 13...and it is 13 verses long. For those of you not familiar with it, I'll include it below...

1 Corinthians 13

1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9-10. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.


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And, there's one more reason I like the number 13. My oldest son was born on March 13, which will always be a special day for me (even when it falls on a Friday).