Moxie Kindness

This is Eileen.  She is not a BIG woman.  She is, in fact, quite petite.  But what she “lacks” in size, she makes up for in MOXIE.  Yes, moxie and kindness!  Meet Eileen, the newest Kindness Activist!!

Modeling her new Kindness Activist button!

Eileen is someone who might be described by friends using adjectives like “spunky”, “perky”, “smart”, “adorable”, “strong”, “witty”, and “talented”*, but I bet none of them thought to use “burly”.  That is, until now!  You see, EILEEN STOPPED A PURSE THIEF!! 

“What the WHAT??” I see you silently wondering.  Here’s the deal:

Eileen was minding her own business, walking to the metro in Washington DC wearing her bright pink backpack and pink Chuck Taylors.  She heard a woman behind her holler that somebody had taken her bag.  She says, “I turned around and there was a man running towards me, and in my infinite ‘flight or flight’ response, I did NEITHER, and just SAT DOWN ON THE SIDEWALK.  Because the man was running and looking behind him (at the woman he had just robbed…) he didn’t see that I had crouched in front of him and he fell over me.”

Is this not the coolest story already?  Our Activist has tripped up a bad guy!!  GO EILEEN! 

But, like many stories here, it gets even better…

You see, when he tumbled and fell over Eileen, the baddie DROPPED both the purse he had stolen and, wait for it, his own wallet!!!  Eileen grabbed both of those things as the man stumbled up and ran away.  She returned the purse to its owner and held onto the wallet until police arrived.  I asked her if the guy was hurt when he fell and we decided that his pride was probably hurt worse than his body.  This beefy young guy had been duped by our pink shoe-d hero! 

Our hero's pink shoes

When the police came Eileen gave a statement and ID’ed the guy from the identification photo in the wallet (which, honestly, could have been anyone’s wallet!  I mean, if the guy steals purses, maybe he steals wallets, too, right?  But it turned out this was the bad guy’s actual wallet – isn’t that fantastic???).  A few days later she had to go do an official police line-up – just like on tv.  

I asked Eileen what the woman did when she returned the purse to her, and she said, “She was really very appreciative.  I did not feel like a HERO.  It was more like, my brain short-circuited and thought, “Let’s go into turtle mode!”.  The whole thing took maybe a minute and a half, but it felt like an eternity.  If I had a moment to think about it I probably would have gotten out of the way and he would have run away.  But my brain literally short-circuited and I just SAT DOWN.  The cop said, ‘Usually in those types of situations we tell people not to do vigilante justice, but you just SAT DOWN.’ “

Eileen doesn't normally live in DC, she is visiting here and performing in "Beertown" by Dog and Pony, DC.  Check it out!  While in town, she took some time to explore the butterfly exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
Check out Dog and Pony DC here:  Dog and Pony Website

Before the cops called to let her know they had caught the guy, she was a bit nervous walking around the city wearing the same bright pink backpack that made her so recognizable.  In hindsight, she realized there could have been other people working with the guy who saw her, the guy could have had a weapon, etc., all scary thoughts.  In summing up the experience, she said, “I hope that, from this situation, the man thinks about it and decides this is not the path for him”.

Many people would call Eileen a HERO for her actions that day.  I would add another title: KINDNESS ACTIVIST.  I can’t think of many people that I know (myself included) that would put themselves on the line like that (turtle style) to stop an injustice.  But she did it!  Way to go Eileen!

*Footnote:  all adjectives used in this description are used in a POSITIVE manner, so don’t get the wrong idea that “spunky” or “perky” are pejorative.  No siree, they are COMPLIMENTS here.

P.S. - If you know of a Kindness Activist, please tell me about them!  I am always hunting for more kind people!  Send me an email at:  kindnessactivist@gmail.com   And while you are at it, "like" Kindness Activist on Facebook so you can see when the next one gets named!

WAY TO GO!!

Wallet Kindness

This story is a good one, because we can all relate to it.  It is about losing something IMPORTANT. We have all done that, no??  (My most recent example is leaving my entire purse in the bleachers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery, and not noticing I was missing it until we walked waaaay down a BIG hill.  Lucky for me I was with 2 knights in shining armor, Jordan and Zach, who literally RAN up the hill and retrieved my purse (which was perfectly intact!).  Like I said, we can all relate to LOSING SOMETHING IMPORTANT.  But isn’t it simply lovely when that loss turns into something positive?

That’s what happened to my nephew’s wife Lyndsey.  The other day she posted this on Facebook:

"There are good people in the world. Today I lost my wallet at Village Pointe mall. A good person

found my it. She opened it only to find my name.  She looked me up on Facebook and

messaged me to let me know she had found it. She even offered to bring it to me when I

called her! Instead we met in a grocery store parking lot. I am so grateful for good people”

Well I don’t know about you, but when I read something like that my first thought is:  THAT WALLET RETURNING WOMAN MUST BE OFFICIALLY NAMED A KINDNESS ACTIVIST!!!  So I set about getting both women’s sides of what happened with the CASE OF THE LOST WALLET.

Nate, Lyndsey, and Ryker

Lyndsey is mom to son Ryker, who just turned 1.  Ever since Ryker was born, she has used his diaper bag to hold her wallet instead of a purse.  They were shopping the other day and the little dude was fussing and ready to leave Old Navy.  Lyndsey set her wallet on top of the visor part of his stroller, put Ryker in his car seat, and folded up the stroller without thinking that her wallet (and sunglasses) were perched on top of the visor!  The wallet and glasses fell off and landed in the parking lot, and off Lyndsey and Ryker drove…

It wasn’t until after naptime and a trip to the grocery store that she noticed she didn’t have her wallet…  Nothing like needing to pay for groceries and frantically hunting for a wallet that is non-existent, eh?  She rushed out to her car to hunt for it, but of course it wasn’t there.

Lyndsey told me, “I knew it was gone, I panicked and frantically searched through my car, the diaper bag... I even decided to leave my groceries at the store after I told them I would be right back!  I drove back to the shopping mall while calling stores I had been to, to see if anyone had turned it in. No luck.  Then I drove back to the apartment and rummaged through all the rooms with no luck.”

The mysterious missing wallet...

We have ALL had this experience, right??  Just last night I hunted EVERYWHERE for a missing coupon.  I know it is in the house somewhere, but I can’t find it!!  Grrrr…

When Lyndsey was leaving home, she noticed that someone she didn’t know had sent her a Facebook message.   She had seen it pop in earlier but was driving so ignored it (and then forgot about it).  She cancelled some of her credit cards, then remembered - THE FACEBOOK MESSAGE! 

She opened it and it turns out it was, as she put it, “The most beautiful message I have read!”

HAPPINESS in the form on a FACEBOOK MESSAGE!

Tiffany, a very kind woman, had tried to locate the owner of the wallet immediately after finding it. It turns out that Tiffany was driving around waiting for her aunt and uncle to come out of a store. She parked, waited, then drove around a bit. When she saw the wallet, she said, "I had a gut feeling to grab it, but for a split second I thought not to... Because what would happen if someone thought I stole it?".

Tiffany, the WALLET FINDER!!!

Lucky for Lyndsey, Tiffany went with her gut and picked it up. She peeked inside ONLY at the license to learn the owner's name so she could try and find her on Facebook. And find her she did!

I asked Tiffany WHY she decided to return the wallet. I mean, some people would have just left it lying there. Others would have dropped if off in a nearby store and let the clerks worry about it. And still others would have kept it! But Tiffany went to the trouble of tracking down the owner. Why?? "I returned it because that is what I would hope someone would do for me," she said. "I have an amazing family and friends that have shown me so much kindness and love, especially when I lost my husband last year. So I try and pay it forward."

Well Tiffany, you paid it forward indeed.  When Lyndsey got in touch and you found out that she was a long drive away you even offered to DELIVER the wallet to her!  That, my dear, is above and beyond the call of Kindness Activist duty!!!  :)

Lyndsey's HERO Tiffany

The two women met up in a grocery store parking lot and Lyndsey almost started crying when she got her sunglasses and wallet back.  She told Tiffany that she was “Her hero” and thanked her for her kindness with a Starbuck’s giftcard. 

This story shows so many things:  Tiffany didn’t know that the lost wallet was important not just because of the credit cards and money inside, but because the wallet itself was a treasured gift from Lyndsey’s husband.  And Lyndsey had no way of knowing that Tiffany, her hero, had herself had a really tough time with her husband’s recent passing.  I am guessing that Tiffany was happy to be in the role of GIVER of kindness in this instance after being a RECIPIENT of so much kindness and support over the past year.

Tiffany summed it up best by saying: “If we had more kind people, this world would be a better place.  I think people forget to be kind and treat people the way they want to be treated!”.

Oh, and Lyndsey has treated herself to what she calls a new "wallet holder" (aka purse) in celebration of her returned wallet (and of learning an important lesson about being careful where you put your wallet!).

New WALLET HOLDER!