This is an I-Heart podcast.

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This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories,

and we tell stories about everything here on this show, from the arts to

sports and from business to history and everything in between, including your stories. Send them

to Our American Stories.com. They're some of our favorites. And today we bring you a story from

one of our listeners in the Twin Cities. We love telling you stories of redemption, and Paul

Cots wrote the book on it. Well, he wrote a book, Something Happened Today, a collection

of the unexpected. The book was initially conceived by Cots' desire to leave something

inspiring for his daughters to read. The title is a

suggestion to look for a miracle every day and is drawn from personal experience. Here's Paul.

Years ago, I was working at a center for the homeless in Kansas City.

Each day, we would receive donations from local markets and donors to feed 120 plus people

in a place called the Family House.

On a beautiful sunny Tuesday morning, a man yelled at me from across the street.

Hey, you. It was my turn to wash windows at the family center. I would put the soapy water in the bucket,

fill and rinse it out, and use a squeegee to make the windows glisten.

I turned around and there was this guy waving at me from the dumpster in plain sight.

He had a salt and pepper colored beard and he motioned for me to come over.

I dropped my cleaning supplies and ventured across the street to see the man.

Got the time? he asked. I gave him the time and he told me his name was Joe. Do you smoke?

He asked. No. I thought back to my dad, who had an air of confidence when he puffed away, many times driving his Thunderbird, convertible top down, and listening to his 50s and 60s music.

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