(Raining again--is that 3 days or 4 of cold, rain, and heavy overcast? It's still dark out, but I can hear it dripping.)

Alison, our Minister, challenged us, rather than giving something up for Lent, to live more consciously. This is to take the form of jotting down something every night, about acts of goodness witnessed during the day. I have yet to remember it once, although last night I found the piece of paper describing the challenge, and this morning I was attempting to think of the good things I saw yesterday.

First I was grateful for my good husband, who went to the grocery store after work. This is not just generous and responsible for me, but he did it as an environmentalist. If I had done the shopping, I would have had to drive an extra mile or more round trip, while he was close to Earth Fare.

As an employee of H&R Block, preparing people's taxes, I observe lots of goodness daily. The tax pros help their clients sincerely. Some of them are older and challenge their patience, but they diligently take the time and explain everything they need to do. Others are poor and in need of as much refund as they can get, as soon as possible.

Yesterday, I had a client come back to me again. Her tax return was singled out by the IRS because she cared for her grandchildren last year, after their mother became sick. Now she has to prove that 1) they are her grandchildren; 2) they lived with her; and 3) she paid the bills. This is not as easy as you would think. We sent some information in, but she has heard nothing in almost a month. She came in once before and I called the IRS, but was on hold for more than 30 minutes and finally hung up. This time we were able to get through after about 10 minutes (a goodness). The person was spoke to was helpful and seemed to be caring, although she told us that it would be 3 or 4 months before they even looked at her paperwork. She did urge us to send in more documentation to confirm the 3 points above. The birth certificates for mother and grandchildren satisfy the first point, no problem. We had sent one doctor's statement to prove that they lived at her address, but this IRS person suggested getting a detailed printout from the doctor's office to cover the whole year. (Fortunately, they went to the doctor several times and it did show her address. She was able to get that and bring it back the same day for me to fax). She needed to send in bills to prove she paid the rent and utilities and other costs. She said everything was included in her rent and she had no receipts for groceries or other expense. The letter she had gotten from the apartment manager was not enough. She had to go back to that office and get a statement proving she had paid the rent every month. So, I faxed those additional things and hope she will hear something positive soon. The goodness, surprisingly, was the IRS agent who took the time to go over the details with us and make sure we had submitted enough to support the case. Otherwise, they might have denied and we would have tried again several months later. She will get several thousand dollars from them, if she can hold out that long.

A neighbor, who is an attorney, gave me advice about my situation.