Week 3

In case you are keeping track, this should really be week 4. But I was battling some sort of bug the week before Thanksgiving, and I didn't focus as much on this small part of my life as I should have. So I am picking up where I left off.

Monday: 
1) Left $1 at Barnes and Noble again for the next customer at the coffee shop. Once again, I was able to catch the cashier off guard in a good way. That feeling makes me happy and sad all at the same time. I'm happy that I can restore a little faith in the human race, but I'm sad that it take a small thing like that to do that.

2) I sent an e-mail message to two former supervisors who I miss dearly. I learned a lot from my time with them and I appreciated all of their teaching and mentoring. I thought I should let them know in case they didn't already.

Tuesday: 
1) I left a quarter in a vending machine for the next person to find. Someone was in the room with me and talking to me when I bought my pop and he may have noticed that I didn't grab my change, but he didn't say anything. I don't judge though. The money was there to be taken by someone as a nice surprise.
2) While at the grocery store to buy things for the pot luck lunch at work the next day, I was in line in front of someone who only had two things in their load. It was two days before Thanksgiving and no one wanted to be at the grocery store, so I let them go in front of me.
Wednesday: I bought coffee for my co-worker on our way to work. She was nice enough to give me a ride that morning so that the husband could come pick me up and we could get straight on the road for Thanksgiving  so it was really the least I could do.
Thursday: Believe it or not, it was difficult to find something to do on Thanksgiving. I was in the same place all day long with the same people. I complimented my mother in law on her food, and sent a message to a lot of people telling them I was thankful to have them in my life. Also, I was dragged to some early Black Friday shopping that evening my my impulsive and wonderfully crazy husband. While in the madness at the store, a woman really needed a copy of the ad that I had in my hand, so I gave it to her to keep. This was no real sacrifice on my part, as I already knew what I was getting and was in line to get it, but she certainly appreciated it.
Friday: I'll be honest, I didn't do anything Friday. I cooked dinner for the husband, something I have only ever cooked once before and I did a pretty good job. But we would have had dinner anyway, so this was no real sacrifice or act of kindness. My shoulder was radiating pain from the driving and the shopping the night before, so I had taken a muscle relaxer Thursday night. If any of you have ever taken one of these, you know it makes you a zombie the next day. I slept late, then took a nap, then went to bed early. I was well rested, but not very nice.
Saturday: I let someone merge in front of me in traffic. I took the husband out to a new place for dinner, and participated in Small Business Saturday by going to a small local place. It was amazing food, and I will definitely be going there again.
Sunday: I sent an e-mail to a friend who is having a medical procedure tomorrow. It is routine and I am sure she will be fine, but I thought I'd send a reassuring message anyway.

Something I said in this entry brings me to the question of whether or not a "good" random act of kindness has to have some sort of sacrifice. I don't like to use the word good, as it portrays a judgement, and judgement is the last thing that should be happening when kindness is the objective. But I'd love to hear people's thoughts on whether or not these acts of kindness should involve some sort of sacrifice, be it time, money or patience that I would not otherwise have.

And some other food for kind thoughts:


This is one of the biggest struggles that I think a lot of people have, as it seems to be instinct to get defensive and be unkind when people are unkind to us. But I think some of those people that are unkind are striking out because how much they have been hurt, and they might need someone to be kind to them just so they remember that not everyone is as terrible as people may have been to them in the past.