5 Pennies - Day 86

1. Racked leaves up for an elderly neighbor
                My neighbor loves her front yard, especially when it is kept nice and tidy. I haven't seen her daughter or son visit to help her recently. I, on the other hand, had some extra time before church this morning - so I found my rake from my garage and got down to raking leaves. The more I raked, the more piles I created, the better I felt. Not so much in the fact that I was helping her, but it gave me time to slow down and just think about things that were going on in my life personally - just a moment to breathe. Before I knew it, the elderly neighbor was right behind me with a trash bag and gathering up my piles. As much as she thanked me for raking her leaves, the more I wanted to thank her for providing me breathing room.

2. Put away abandoned shopping carts at the grocery store
                These poor carts - they just needed help in finding a place to belong. Isn't that metaphoric for us as humans sometimes in our own lives?

3. Cleaned up spilled marshmallows that spilled in an grocery store isle
            For a small ball of sugar - wow! They can make a big, big, big mess. They may be wonderful in being melted within a s'more, but they are completely gross when the get stuck to the bottom of your shoe. So I simply saw a cleaning cart near by, borrowed the small broom, and swept up the marshmallows madness. The funny thing was that as I swept up the marshmallows, other people just stopped and stared at me - thinking, "What is she doing?" But as they asked themselves this, I was thinking "How can people just walk around this mess and not want to do anything to help?"

4. Took out the the trash to the curb for someone else
             I noticed earlier today that this person wasn't feeling all that great - so I just wanted to do something nice for them.

5. Wrote an encouraging card to staff members at a local nursing facility
             Nurses are very special people that are often over looked on a day to day basis. They provide so much care and attention, but rarely get thanked and often get mistreated. We would not be able to survive without these people. I just wanted to say thank you and keep up the good work to the staff of a local facility. They do such an amazing job.