Yesterday was awesome!!  I lived most of it "in the moment" that it was happening.  Living in the moment is the life lesson that I keep working on & yesterday I felt some of the rewards of my continued effort with that lesson.

the best laid plans...my "plan" for yesterday, Sunday, was to work on this here website.  I really wanted to go live with it by the beginning of this week.  However, some things came up :)  One odd thing that came up was trying to find a home for an old twin bed we cleaned out of my folks house.  The furniture was well-loved and easily 15 years old.  It was particle board construction and of a dated design.  Most people would just pitch it or take it to a charity thrift store, but my dad, being a big advocate of keeping things out of the landfill and finding the right "home" for dumpster-bound stuff, opted for something more.

I suggested we try Freecycle.  Freecycle aims to match up "spring cleaning" items with someone who could use it.  It is a great solution for the environment as well as alleviates some of the guilt of getting rid of stuff before it's useful life is complete.  It turns out it's good for folks in other ways, too, as I discovered yesterday.  I posted the bed and got a few interested responses.  One of the responses went like this:

i could reallyuse both if you still have them to offer,we're a one income family with 2 little gisl, one of who has autism, and
no "extra $" to buy things,so we freecyce inhopes of receivin things.

I replied to this reply saying:  "I'm attaching photos, please call tomorrow if you would like to schedule a time (ASAP) to come pick them up. Or depending on where you live, perhaps we could help bring them to you."  I was actually getting ready to take the bed to a thrift store anyway, so I thought I could--maybe--just take it to someone's house if they were going to run into an issue of coming to get it.

The reply to my reply was:

hi, thanks fr your offer. i would like the bed, i wll be in  a class all day tomorrow for aba for my daughter with autism. if yo cld give me an idea of where you are, and if you arent ar, i could use the help of yur inging them here. just let me know.

I decided to take the bed the ~35 minute drive to this family in need.  My husband wasn't sure he believed the Autism story, as "not many girls have Autism" and maybe the story fabricated to get priority of the bed (and, he wondered, why couldn't they come to pick it up?), but I was going with my gut and felt I had nothing to lose (except time and I could just work on the website later that night)...

My mom said that she'd go with me to help unload the bed.  We had a fantastic time driving to this unknown-Freecycle-found destination.  She told me about an interview with Shane Claiborne  on Speaking of Faith that she had just heard & been mesmerized by...she was ready to run out and get his book:  The Irresistable Revolution:  Living as an Ordinary Radical.

Before we knew it, we arrived at our destination.  I met the two little girls (one of whom was Autistic, both of whom were adorable) and their dad.  He was so gracious and thankful.  "Thank you for taking the time to bring this to us.  Thank you kindly." he said; the "kindly" ringing in my ears...

So I didn't get to work on the Acts of Kindness website, but I got to take action on kindness.  Yay for living in the moment.  and thank you Freecycle.

So, a big thing with me is taking ACTION on something that you intend to do.  I believe everyone gets urges to do nice things but somewhere between the thought and the act--the momentum is lost or, more times, distracted off course.  The disconnect between the thought and the act is actually how I became fascinated--even obsessed--with kindness and why I love to highlight when I see real acted-out instances of it.

Sometimes my to-do list includes something I would consider an act of kindness:  like mailing a note to someone or sending a "just thinking of you" email or--in the case of what sparked this entry--getting a magazine subscription for a friend.  The point I'm getting to with all of this, is that if I don't do that "little-something-special-for-someone-else-thing" first thing in the morning, it probably won't get done.

Me, Ms.-Actions-Speak-Louder-Than-Words-Just-Do-It-Already, I will get sidetracked or distracted the minute I get onto email or address another "screaming" project (work, kid, or house).  My learning from this, though, is worth sharing because if I just do the kind thing first--without even thinking about the other things on my list--it WILL get done!  Case in point, I still haven't ordered the magazine for Maggie, yet...

I'll do it first thing tomorrow morning...with my coffee.

The climax of spring for me, is the day the peonies bloom. They explode with an absolutely delicious smell and I want to eat them up and snuggle into them in the same instant.  I don't have any peonies of my own, but my neighbors do.  One neighbor in particular (his name is Tim) has several peony bushes & therefore many peony flowers.

I couldn't resist calling Tim, complimenting his front yard and asking him if I could have just one of his peonies.  He said, "Emma, of course you can have one.  You can have as many as you'd like.  And that reminds me, I wanted to send some to work with Dennis for his assistant.  Please, take what you want."  I was excited that he said yes, and just to see how generous he was being with them in general.  He realized what a treat they were and was making a point of sharing them.  Way to go, Tim!!

I immediately went down the block with my pruning shears.  I did take more than one; I took four.  Two for my bedside table, one for my office desk, and one for the bathroom.  They were stunning.  I was surrounded by their sweet scent and the reminder of Tim's sweet kindness.

Yes, personally I feel kindness is everywhere:  we just have to be primed to recognize (and to create) it.

This first blog entry is inspired by the little girl down the block.  Her name is Joey.  She's about five years old.  She's a rockstar & I adore her.  Yesterday I was walking to my car and saw Joey, her little sister and her mother as they where walking down the block.  We chatted for a bit and then I asked Joey, "So what have you been up to?"  Her mom suggested, "Why don't you tell Emma what we just did."

"We just did a mitzvah!" Joey told me.

"What's a mitzvah?" I had to ask.

"It's something nice."  Joey said.

Her mother further explained that they had made challah (passover bread) and decided to bring some of it to a widower up the street who doesn't get out very much.  (They also gave some to the neighbor a few doors down who lent them an egg for the recipe.)

Well, that is definitely something nice.  Definitely a deliberate act of kindness.  Joey, her sister, and her mother are all caught red-handed in the kindness cookie jar!