So I treated my son to his current favorite restaurant today for lunch. Despite the name of the establishment, the servers are rarely Friendly and helpful. However, today was different. I don't know if my son brought with him his extra charm ability or what, but the waitress that we had today was so great. She would talk directly to him as if he is much older that his 5 years of living and even helped him order a lactose free sundae - which in the past has been refused to be done by previous servers. She was really great with me, but I'm more impressed with how she handled my son so respectfully. So when it was time to pay for the bill, I wrote her a special note of saying thank you. Then on my way out I accidentally bumped into the manager and told him how wonderful of a waitress she was. He immediately said, "Oh your the customer that wrote her a note! She's been showing everyone that note. She even made a copy of it to take home!" Cute!!!
2. Gave water to another person on Mission Trip
So I spent some time in the upper Eastern region of Tennessee on a mission trip. It was a beautiful experience because I really like service work and helping others. Although some projects had few people interactions, I knew that what I was doing was going to benefit someone else tomorrow. Anyway, one of the people that was on the mission trip with me ran out of the water that she brought along with her. Although the water in the region that we were working in was perfectly fine & healthy to drink, there was still something different about the taste. Prior to leaving for this trip, I packed an entire case of bottled water in my Jeep. I had plenty and she needed some. So everyday I gave her a bottle - easy to do :-)
3. Bought a Beatles Magazine for another Mission Trip person
So I went on this Mission Trip completely by myself - I knew no one and didn't know anything about the area that I worked in. Basically, I felt like I was being called to work and knew that I was going to be ok. Within the group that I worked with on various projects there was another teenager that loved the Beatles. It was really great to have a common interest with this other person that I only met for about 5 minutes, yet we talked about this band as if we shared them for several years. Later in the day I was at a store helping other customers when I looked over at the counter and saw a Beatles music magazine on sale. The front copy had a picture of her favorite Beatle - Paul - and knew instantly that I needed to get it for her. She was so surprised and thrilled with the gesture!
*Oh & by the way - John's my favorite...
4. Helped another teacher put supplies into her car
So on this Mission Trip we had this activity that was called Random Acts of Kindness - instantly I was attracted to this idea :-) Basically, we were to go out into the various communities and help anyone with anything that they needed. At the store that I mentioned above, I noticed that a woman was pushing a cart filled with school supplies to her car. Something about how she walked made me observe her longer and soon I realized that she had a broken foot and was wearing a walking boot. I soon found myself talking to her about what grade she taught and helping her with her supplies. She told me that she taught 2nd grade at an underprivileged school that many of her students showed up without supplies - that's why she was buying an over abundance out of her own pocket. Being a teacher, I've done so many similar things to help my students too. Its amazing how much money teachers spend of their own in order to help their students, classroom, and school without even thinking about recouping this amount. Soon our talk was over and offered to push her cart back to the store. The cool thing was that even though I didn't know this woman, or her name, I still felt such a strong connection with her that helping her didn't feel the slight bit awkward.
5. Gave my extra snacks away
Again on my Mission Trip, I met such an interesting person. His jokes and humor was refreshing in times of stillness, but in return I never met someone that prayed so openly and passionately. Sometimes when people pray around me it feels cumbersome and odd, but he was different. It was such a feeling of being calm and at ease. It was truly a wonderful experience that I will never forget. Anyway, I quickly found out that he liked the snack food of Cheetos during our first packed lunch meals. Being a health and nutrition based person, I rarely eat junk food and when I offered the first bag to him - he enjoyed it so much. So for the rest of the week, I always made sure that I picked a bag lunch that had this snack and passed it to him. In a way it was my way to say thank you for being such an amazing person. The power of Cheetos!!!
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