Some acts of kindness can
blow a person away. And that’s just what happened
to me on April 1st.
A little boy, Miles, and
his grandpa, George, showed up at our front door. Miles, age 3 ½, had something in his hand,
something they wanted to give to me. I
showed him where the mail slot was and explained that’s where the mail carrier
puts our deliveries. I went back inside,
closed the door, and waited for the envelope to plop through the mail slot.
Then I grabbed it and went
back on the porch with them to open it.
It was $100.
$100! No strings attached. $100 cash to do with what I pleased.
It turned out George and Miles
were on their first stop of a month of SPREADING KINDNESS! George had made a plan to give $100 each day
in April to someone. To surprise
them! Well, he sure surprised me!
 |
| Miles and his grandpa, George |
He explained that I was
the first recipient of his kindness. He had
heard about my Kindness Activist projects (like the Little Yellow Free Pantry)
and thought I would be able to think of a creative and caring way to use the
funds.
I was taken aback! It was as if the roles were reversed… Usually I am on the giving side, not
the receiving side… And as George and I talked
and brainstormed about other people/places he could surprise and treat during
April, I grew more excited about the possibilities!
I decided to hold onto the
$100 until the end of the month because I wanted to see what George and Miles
found to do with their envelopes. Maybe one
of their missions would inspire me in how I should use the money. It felt like such a huge decision!!! I wanted to make sure to use it in just the
right manner to honor two kind people who had been so generous.
Well, I got contacted
yesterday that George and Miles were going to make a reappearance at our house. They came the FIRST day of their project, and
Miles had chosen me to get ANOTHER GIFT ON THE FINAL DAY!! I was so excited this morning waiting and
watching for them!
Sure enough, at the
appointed time they pulled up on Grandpa’s bike – Miles in his helmet and a special
seat on the front. (Later I would learn
that Miles is in charge of ringing the bike bell if someone gets near the bike. Big responsibility for a little guy!) Just seeing the two of them made me smile so
big!! George gave Miles the envelope,
and Miles scrambled up the stairs. We repeated
the game of putting it through the mail slot, and I was honored and delighted
to find another “hunnit bucks” (as Miles says) inside!! We talked a while and soon they were off to do
another repeat surprise.
George shared the list of
places he treated during his month-long adventure. Here are some of them:
-
Put money in 2
baby onesies at Goodwill
-
Slipped money
under an ambulance’s windshield wiper
-
Taped money next
to a sleeping homeless person
-
Put money in
random bags of food being handed out at a giveaway
-
Donated to several
very worthy organizations
-
Treated school
lunch staff
-
And gave a great
tip to a server!
That is just a few of
the amazing ways they spread kindness. You
can see how careful and deliberate they were in their gifts, which is why I
want to make sure I use what they gave me in just the right way.
And I really thought that I
found the perfect opportunity to share the kindness this afternoon! It was the same day as the gifters had
returned, and I saw just the right opportunity (I thought). It felt like kismet!
Through the kitchen window
I could see a woman stopped at the Little Yellow Free Pantry. The bags she carried made it appear that she
may be homeless. As I do whenever I see
someone browsing in the pantry, I rushed out to greet her. She looked about my age and was very
sweet. She said that because it is the
end of the month, she was low on food. Food
stamps would come Monday. I explained that the food in the pantry is donated by
caring neighbors and if she told me what she wanted I would go inside and make
a bag. She had seen a small container of
chocolate milk in the pantry and said that was all she needed.
And that is when she began
teaching me the lesson – but I didn’t sense it yet.
All of my, “No, really,
there is a lot of food in the house, just tell me what you would like and I will
bring it out for you!” utterances were met with her assurance that the small chocolate
milk was all she wanted.
We continued our
conversation – talking about how great the weather is, how nice the neighborhood
is, etc. I encouraged her to smell a
rose on our bush – they are the sweetest smelling roses ever. She talked about healthcare, yoga, meditation… We talked about diet and what food means to
people. After a while my sweetheart
David came out and joined us. It was
nice, the 3 of us standing and chatting.
It sort of felt like the “old days” pre-Covid.
At one point she told us
she “lives outdoors”. I loved that
expression. It held dignity in a way
that “homeless” does not. It made me
think she was not “less” a home, she was “more” an outdoor space. As she let us into her world it was clear
that there may be some mental illness involved.
Sometimes her reality and “normal” reality (“normal” was her word, not
mine) did not seem to mesh. I was so
honored that she felt comfortable talking with us. She eventually talked about being homeless –
how it is different in each city she has lived in, and how in DC it is
particularly dangerous. I asked if she wanted
to live outdoors, or if she would prefer to be housed. She smiled and told us that if we had asked
her that in the cold winter, she would have said housed, at least for a
night. But now that warm weather is here
she is happy being in the open air.
As we talked, I thought of
the money given to me this morning. I felt
THIS WOMAN was the right recipient. Imagine
what $100 could do for her! A hotel for the
night if she wanted – soft bed, warm shower…
A nice, warm meal. Vitamins for
her health. A better bag to carry her
things. So many options.
I told her I had a couple
of things for her and ran into the house to get scissors, a clothes pin, and $100. I told her I was going to give her the rose
we smelled, and she resisted the gift. She
said to leave it on the bush for other people to smell as they went by. But I insisted, and cut it off and presented
it to her with the clothespin so she could pin it wherever she wanted.
Then I pulled out the envelope
with the money. I explained that I had
been gifted this just this morning to spread kindness, and I chose her to
receive it.
Her gentle eyes looked at
me. She smiled. And she said no thank you.
“I have a rule, a personal
rule, not to take money from people,” she explained.
And all of my, “But it is
for YOU!” and, “Here, I put it in the pantry, now you are taking it from there
and not from me…” did not work. She
would not take it.
She explained that she did
not need the money. She was good. And I think she was right - she looked
content.
I told her I would hold it
for her. I have written her name on the
envelope and hung it on the refrigerator.
I suspect she will come back to talk.
I told her she can ring the doorbell anytime and ask for her money – if she
doesn’t want all of it, maybe $20 or $5.
She smiled. She knows it is there
for her.
I hope that the bad people
in her mind quiet down. I hope that she
meditates as she walks, like she learned to do in another city. I hope that she stays safe. I hope she gets vaccinated. I hope that she finds a quiet, warm place to
sleep tonight.
And I thank her for the
lesson. Sometimes, even when it seems
like you have almost nothing at all, you have absolutely everything you could
want.
