Taking Attendance - Are You Present? (And More Kindness Yard Sale Accounting!!)

Remember when the teacher used to take ATTENDANCE?  Count who was THERE for the day?

I think that we (humans in general) are sometimes in ATTENDANCE, but not really PRESENT. 

Know what I mean?  I for one am guilty!  Took a long road trip this week, but how much scenery did I see (vs. how many games of Words With Friends did I play…)?  This is something I have tried to work on in my life the past decade or so – being PRESENT in moments, paying attention, getting involved, interacting, and noticing things.

In that vein, 2 days ago I posted this on a Facebook page I run called “Kindness Activist”:

“Hypothetical question: if someone handed you $50 right now, what would you do with it?   #KindnessActivist “

Only, guess what, it was NOT a hypothetical question.  It was real – a genuine query to see what people would do if I gave them $50 of the proceeds from the Kindness Activist Yard Sale.  I have had the pleasure of using some of the money, I wanted to see what others might do with it if they were given the chance to share it.

The results were confounding to me.  80 people viewed the post.  13 people “engaged” with the post (whatever that means).  And only 2 – TWO – took time to ponder what they would do with the $50 and reply.  That astounds me, because it seems so opposite of what my immediate response would be to a prompt like that!  I think if I were asked the same question, I would reply with a dozen things I would like to use $50 for 😊 . 

I thought about WHY people may not have responded.  Ideas I came up with:

•  Too busy
•  Uninterested
•  $50 was not enough money to take a break in their day to consider how they would use it
• Hypotheticals aren’t their thing
• Too much effort to think of something
• They deemed it a stupid post 😊
• They thought someone else would have a better idea of what to do with the money

But 2 people DID reply.  I considered what that might mean about them:

•       They had some downtime to think about the question
•          They like hypotheticals
•          They suspected it might not be hypothetical
•          They live their lives as present, engaged, creative, and interactive people

Note:  I am NOT dissing anyone who saw the post and didn’t reply, I just really like the social experiment aspect of it and considering the ins/outs/whys of it all.

I hope the 2 respondents don’t mind if I extrapolate a bit about them here.  

Rebecca

The first to reply was Rebecca Kinder Lahan.  I have known here for many years (she was in our wedding 😊 ).  I know her to be very creative, genuine, caring, and honest.  She is a super fun mother of 3 and is so concerned about the state of education where she lives that she ran for school board and was elected.  Plus, she and her family take a terrific photo with Santa every year.  GO REBECCA!  She said that she would use the $50 to donate to RAICES to help migrant families at the border. 

Samantha

The other respondent was Samantha Marcum Blackaby.  I have not known Samantha very long – she is the niece of our Florida neighbor.  What I DO know about her is that when her Aunt Carol (our neighbor) died and we went to Kentucky for the funeral, Samantha opened up her home to us as if we were family.  She lives on a farm and she let us throw on some borrowed boots for the mud and took us city-folk on a tour of that farm that I will never forget.  I was in a CHICKEN COOP, people!!  And the next day she cooked us a breakfast like no other – there was food for days, all of it made by her (and her parents) even though they were in the middle of grieving a dear relative.  I also know she is a very supportive mother, in love with her little nephew, has gone through some super tough experiences in her life but keeps smiling, and is an amazing 3^rd grade teacher in rural Kentucky.  Samantha said she would use the $50 to buy a pair of tennis shoes for a child she knows for the upcoming school year.

Now for the accounting part of this post:

·         

     Rebecca - $50 of the proceeds from the Kindness Yard Sale have been donated to RAICES in your name

·    

     Samantha - $50 of the proceeds from the Kindness Yard Sale are heading your way to invest in new shoes for your deserving student

And to the rest of us – let’s strive to live like today isn’t hypothetical.  Let’s engage, interact, create – be it in the virtual world or in the real one that surrounds us. 

Let’s BE IN ATTENDENCE and BE PRESENT. 

P.S. – we miiiight have bought some Powerball tickets to hand out…  I mean, hypothetically speaking, there could be a couple of chances for someone, maybe YOU, to turn into a millionaire come Wednesday June 26^th….  If you want to be PRESENT for that, comment here.  I mean, SOMEBODY’S gotta win, right? 

P.P.S. – if you would like to follow Rebecca’s lead and donate to RAICES, here is how:  https://www.raicestexas.org/donate/

Croc Kindness

My friend Jody heard about this project and introduced me to her sister Amy.  Amy is most definitely a KINDNESS ACTIVST, and I was thrilled to hear her story.

Amy and her husband have two adorable children, Lilia (age 11) and Kaiser (age 6).  Both were adopted – Lilia from Russia and Kaiser from Ethiopia.  So just that fact, that this family is open-hearted enough to adopt two children, makes me smile.

Beautiful family with huge hearts

But there is much more to the story…

When Amy and her husband went to Ethiopia the first time, they were struck by the kids’ SHOES.  Amy told me that the kids they saw were wearing shoes that were way too small, much too big, or had big holes in them.  Some of the children only had ONE SHOE.  Amy’s husband said, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could collect a bunch of shoes to bring back to Ethiopia on our second trip?”.

You get where this is going…  And it is terrific!

Amy says, “We just had it in our heart that this is what we were supposed to do.”  So do it they did!  They set a goal of collecting 100 shoes to bring to Ethiopia (which Amy was secretly doubtful they could make).  They decided to collect CROCS, because most of the kids they saw did not have socks so Crocs would be a good shoe for them. 

They set their sights on 100 pairs of Crocs...

They made pleas to their families, their church members, and everyone they could contact via Facebook to donate shoes.  Their Croc collection for those little kids in Ethiopia was ON! 

And here is the amazing part:  they collected 377 pairs of Crocs!!!!!!!! Crocs of all colors!  Beautiful, sturdy, functional CROCS!!  Amy says, “God provides, and we felt awesome.  We felt like even through the little things, God shows that he does care.  He cares about people far away.  He cares enough to pull our hearts towards kindness and giving”.

Now THAT is a lot of CROCS!!

They brought so many shoes to Ethiopia with them that every single child in the orphanage where they were adopting their son Kaiser got a pair!  Not only that, they had even MORE shoes to give to several other orphanages in the area!!  “The kids were ecstatic!  When they came out with their shoes on, they were all smiles and so thankful,” Amy told me.

Little feet in little Crocs!
 (They could not take photos of children's faces other than their own son)

Isn’t that just great??  They gave one child a forever family – a brand new life.  And they gave all of the children at the orphanage a beautiful gift of sturdy shoes. 

How could you NOT fall in love with this cutie????  Here is Kaiser in a pile of Crocs!  :)

Like almost every Kindness Activist I have interviewed for this project, Amy downplayed her story.  She said that they were more blessed by the experience than the kids.  And she stressed how much need there is in the world, “Even if we worked every day for the rest of our lives, the need would still be great”.  This is, of course, very true.  But it is people like Amy and her family that help put a dent in that need and serve as shining examples to the rest of us. 

And, as icing on their kindness cake, they also brought 300 Matchbox cars to hand out in Ethiopia.  J 

Thank you for sharing your inspiring story, Amy.  If you know of a Kindness Activist, please tell me about them!  Email me at kindnessactivist@gmail.com.  And be sure to “like” us on Facebook (Kindness Activist).