Secret Shoveling Kindness

Recently in the piece called “Neighborly Kindness” I mentioned that some neighbors were shoveling sidewalks that were not in front of their house.  They were just randomly, secretly, KINDLY shoveling for people!!  Not asking for payment, not even knocking on the door and announcing their good deed, JUST SHOVELING. 

And this was no LIGHT SNOW they were shoveling either!  It was deep (around 3 feet total) and it was heavy!  So these neighbors were, in my humble opinion, going well above and beyond being “neighborly”.  They definitely crossed into the KINDNESS ACTIVIST category!

One neighbor whose walk they shoveled, Kia, figured out who was doing it.  I asked her to reveal the secret shovelers’ identifies to me, and she did.  Turns out it was a family that lives next door to her.  I walked down and saw them in action and asked if I could take their photo. 

Not only did they SHOVEL, they also SMILED!  They were having a blast.

THIS IS THE AMAZING SECRET SHOVELING FAMILY!!  Aren’t they fantastic??

The problem is, they speak Spanish, and I do not.  Of course, I know “gracias” so I did convey that to them.  But I wish I was fluent so I could tell them how awesomely kind their actions were.

You know the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words”??  I hope that is true, because I just framed a 5 x 7 print of the photo above to give to them.  I will walk down to their house to deliver it, plus their KINDNESS ACTIVIST buttons.  Hopefully a SMILE is worth a few words, too, because I imagine smiles will be exchanged.

There was a LOT of snow...

Kindness knows no linguistic boundaries. 

Tell me about kindness you have seen!  Send me an email at kindnessactivist@gmail.com .

Here is how deep it was in our yard (this is before it stopped snowing...).  That family shoveled a TON of snow!

Neighborly Kindness

Our neighborhood has a listserve.  And a Facebook group.  AND a second Facebook group!  You would think, given all of those online resources, that we must live in a super close-knit, well connected community, maybe one with a fancy schmancy Home Owner’s Association (HOA) or even a big old fence around the whole area.  Or you might imagine that the neighbors all know one another, play Yahtzee together on Friday nights, and invite one another over for dinner.

But those ideas about our neighborhood would be wrong.  Because even though I belong to 3 different electronic groups whose memberships are made up of my neighbors, the truth is that I do not know many of them.  Oh sure, I know a few by name, and I know some enough to smile and say “hi” if they walk by while we are working the garden.  But we are not the type of community where we all really KNOW one another.

So all of that is to explain THIS:  a neighbor named Kia has been kind TWICE to us lately, and I have never even MET HER.  J  Isn’t that fabulous??

The first time she offered her kindness was in October.  I had a grand Halloween costume idea but lacked the necessary materials to make it, namely, I needed a BIG PIECE OF CARDBOARD.  For a couple of years I wanted to dress up as bacon (me) and a big egg (David), and this year we finally had the time to make the costumes!  Only, we had no big sheet of cardboard…

So I posted on our neighborhood Facebook group asking if anyone perhaps had a big box they could give us, like from a flat screen tv or a refrigerator.  Luckily for me, someone I didn’t even know replied that she indeed had a box and we were welcome to it!  She said they had just bought a new crib and if the box was big enough for what we needed we could have it!  She gave us the address for pick up and when we realized it was only, like, seven doors down from us we walked down to pick it up.

Yup, we had never met the neighbors seven doors down.  And even after we picked up the perfect box, we STILL didn’t meet Kia!  Her husband opened the door and gave us the box, but Kia was inside feeding the kids.  (The box worked perfectly!  It was just what we needed and David’s sunny side up egg was lovely!  It was the perfect complement to my bacon.)

Hey!  It is BACON and EGGS!!  (Egg made out of a cardboard box from a baby crib!)

Wait a minute, who is that?  Could it be - EGGS and BACON??? 

Fast forward to January when we got hit with a big blizzard.  We had, like, three feet of snow and we own one (old and bent up) shovel.  Let’s just say, we had our work cut out for us…  And Kia posted a super sweet message to the neighborhood Facebook group.  She said, “Hey neighbors, someone came by and shoveled not only my driveway, but several of my neighbors as well.  We’re new to the neighborhood so I’m not sure if it’s something the county does or a neighborhood good Samaritan.  I’d love to know who it was so we can thank them.  Anyone know?” 

Proof that the snow was DEEP - this is a row of rental bikes in our neighborhood.

I replied with a comment telling her it was NOT the county J and that sooomeone must have been very sweet to her!!  Later I sent her a private message asking her to share the identity of the mystery shoveler if she found out who it was so I could recognize them in this blog.

Well, not only did she tell me who did it (they will be recognized in a future kindness entry here), she offered to loan us her family’s ELECTRIC POWER SNOW SHOVEL!!  Yes, she didn’t even KNOW US and she was going to trust their fancy new tool to us!

Well, she didn’t’ have to offer twice – off we went to borrow it!  But wouldn’t you know it, when we knocked on the door, AGAIN WE DID NOT GET TO MEET KIA, the sweet person who offered us the shovel in the first place!  She was feeding the baby, but her nice husband was happy to loan us the shovel.

Isn't this cool??  Because it was so deep, we had to do layer by layer with the Power Shovel, but it worked! 

And though I must confess that the snow was a wee bit too deep for the electric shovel to be 100% effective, it sure was FUN to use!  More often than not I got snow thrown back on top of my head, but it was a sunny afternoon and the impromptu snow shower was fun!!  It made shoveling silly and a bit easier.  (And that electric shovel would be perfect if you had only a couple of inches to scoop instead of a couple of feet!)

I am sure this goes without saying, but after a few hours when we had shoveled all we could shovel and went to return the fancy electric shovel, you guessed it, no Kia… J 

We survived the Blizzard of 2016 :)

So this story proves that even if you do not officially KNOW someone, if you have NEVER EVEN MET THEM, you can still be super kind to them!!  You can make someone very happy even without ever having met them.

Thanks Kia – you are a Kindness Activist.  I will walk down to your house this week to deliver your Kindness button – wonder if I will officially finally meet you????!  J

I found this photo of Kia on her Facebook page.  I am putting it here so next time I see her walk by I will recognize her!  :)

Do you know a Kindness Activist?  Or maybe, like Kia, you don't even KNOW them, but they have been kind to you?  Tell me about them!  Send me details at:  kindnessactivist@gmail.com .  Let's share stories of kindness and make the world a more kind place! 

7 Year Old Kindness

Kemper is 7 years old.  Vito is 97.  They are neighbors.  And buddies. 

Kemper is my great-nephew, and by that I mean the son of my niece, so great-nephew, and so a terrific nephew, so GREAT nephew!  He has the most kind heart of any child ever (in my proud aunt opinion).

 

Kemper, November 2015

But it isn’t just ME who thinks he is kind!  Everyone who meets him does!  This Thanksgiving I made “word clouds” for my family.  I had everyone email me a few words that they associated with each family member.  I then put those words into a “word cloud”, which makes the most mentioned words the biggest on the page.  It is easy to guess what Kemper’s big words were – “kind” was mentioned by 2 people and “kind hearted” was mentioned by 3 more!!  (People also associated “funny”, “smart”, “open minded”, “compassionate”, “fast”, and “Legos” with him J among other words, which I think all fit him perfectly, too.)

I called Kemper the other night to ask him about why he is so kind to Vito.  Here is what he told me:

Me:  Kemper, why do you do kind things for Vito?

Kemp:  He really needs help.  He is nice!  One day I went to his house to rake his leaves. 

Me:  Did you ask him to give you money for your work?

Kemp:  NO, I didn’t ask for money.  It was just volunteer.


Kemper raking leaves for his buddy



Me:  Did you rake the leaves by yourself?
Kemp:  Another neighbor lady came over and helped, too.  (Note:  I think sometimes Kemper’s parents help him at Vito’s house, too J .)

Me:  And how did helping Vito make YOU feel?

Kemper:  It made me feel good.  I felt good because I helped him out.  Being kind makes me feel good AND it helps Vito. 

Me:  How do you think it makes Vito feel when you do kind things for him, like rake his leaves?

Kemper:  He probably feels happy.  He smiled when he saw us raking. And he thanked us. 

Vito, age 97, and Kemper, age 7.  Buddies.

Me:  Will you do more kind things for him do you think? 
Kemper:  Yes!  Sometimes I bring his newspaper to him.  Sometimes when we make cookies we share them with him!  I have carried his trash cans for him. And I will probably shovel his snow.  (Note:  word on the street is that Kemper really wants to shovel for his buddy!)


Here is Kemp when he was the ring bearer in a wedding.  I shot this DURING the wedding.  :) 
He was taking a little break from the official ceremony.

Kemper’s mom, Ashlee, talked to me also and said that sometimes Kemper might be considered a little TOO kind!  Hahaha.  One example she gave is that last year his school had “stereotypical” lunch ladies, and this year they were all replaced with really sweet, nice ones.  But when asked which group of lunch ladies he prefers, Kemper “doesn’t want to make the old lunch ladies feel bad by complimenting the new lunch ladies” (even though NONE of the lunch ladies are present when he is asked the question!! J ).  That’s Kemper, always kind to everyone!!

I love this photo of Kemper in the outfield.  I think he was only 5 when I shot this, but it just feels so representational of Little League to me.  :)  By the way, Kemper is a really good ball player!

So you see, even 7 year olds get it!  Kindness is good.  Kindness is easy.  JUST DO IT!  Your Kindness Activist button will come in the mail soon, Kemper!!! 

Do you know a kind kid??  Or a kind adult??  Please send me an email at kindnessactivist@gmail.com and tell me a little about them!  I would love to declare them a KINDNESS ACTIVIST!

Bonus photo!  This was a project Kemper did recently at school.  Let's just say, his dad (whose name "coincidentally" is PETER, just like this colorful elephant!) is very proud of it.  Doesn't Kemp have good handwriting, too?