A CUP OF KINDNESS - let's chat

Grab something to drink, this is going to be a long one...

When I plan out my blogging editorial calendar each month I always leave Saturdays open knowing that I want my chatting with you to be current news.  Each week my hope is that these visits will be encouraging words between friends, but today my heart is heavy and I struggled to find something positive to talk about.

As the events across the country have unfolded and without taking a stand on the individual things
that have occurred, I am left wondering what we as individuals can do to perpetuate hope?  What measure of kindness can we each perform that will reinforce the good and help to extinguish the ugly?

So I started thinking about my week.  What touched me in a positive way?  What small thing did a stranger do that made me smile?  As I started to compile a quick list, it became evident that I didn't have to think very hard to find a few and I could have easily filled up a page if I really tried.  I thought I'd offer you just a sample to get you thinking, too...

Home grown fruit gifted by a neighbor...

I try to walk every morning (it doesn't always happen, but I try) and I always go the same way in our neighborhood so I tend to see the same people and their routines quite often.  This week as I was passing by the home of an elderly white man I have never met before, he motioned for me to stop and asked me to wait a minute.  He reached into his garage freezer and he brought me out a bag of frozen peaches from his tree.

For no reason other than a cup of kindness.

A tribe of fellow parents of campers helping to corral and entertain a two year old...

This week my eight year old grandson was at dirt camp which is a week long day camp in our local mountains.  On Thursday evening the families are invited up to watch a skit they've been working on and tour the campgrounds.  I went along with my two year old grandson...a two year old and a whole lot of dirt...need I say more.  It might have been impossible to watch the skit had it not been for the other grown ups who were there and who helped me keep my youngest grandson in tow, particularly an African American couple.

For no reason other than a cup of kindness.

A whole mint plant gifted when all I needed was a couple of mint leaves...

As I mentioned before when I walk our neighborhood I tend to see people out doing what they do every morning.  This one corner house I pass has the most prolific fruit and vegetable gardens surrounding their home both front yard and (from what I can see when I tip toe and peek) the backyard as well.  As I was walking I was making a mental list of what I needed to get done that day and happened to remember that I forgot to buy mint for a recipe when I was at the grocery store.  It dawned on me that this one particular neighbor has lots of mint growing and I thought I would be bold enough to ask her, a middle aged Asian woman who I had never talked to before, for a sprig or two if she was outside when I walked by.  She was...and I did.  Not only did she graciously give me more than I needed but she also asked if I would like a cutting she had potted up to take home with me?  The cutting turned out to be a full grown plant!

For no other reason than a cup of kindness.

I am a middle aged hispanic woman.  Normally I wouldn't have thought of or even mentioned the race of my fellow life sojourners but this week it hit me hard that our differences don't have to define and dictate our actions.  We can treat each other kindly for no other reason than it's the right thing to do.  I am not so naive as to not see the injustice in the world.  I know it's there...I have experienced it first hand myself but I also know that while I can't control the way others behave, I can control how I do.

I can acknowledge a stranger with a smile and a kind word, I can offer assistance when I see it's needed, I can gift a stranger with more than they asked for.

For no other reason than a cup of kindness.

It can be so easy to be swallowed up by the meanness and hate in the world and lose sight of the everyday goodness and blessings around us.  It takes intentional thinking and living to fight the darkness of evil with Goodness and Light.  Won't you be that light with me?

xo, Patty

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