So, I was frustrated. My attempt to provide a little magic and wonder by planting fistfulls of Gerber daisies in the snow on random front lawns did not provoke magic and wonder in many of the receivers. One house took them in, but 3 left them--or worse--threw them in the street.
Generally, I'm not giving with attachment to response, but I am doing this to make small differences in people's every day lives. To bring beauty, magic, wonder, curiousity, belief in the good--in small ways in the lives of others every week. The castaway daisies made me rethink some things. So on Thursday, I did no small act of kindness. I thought about how to make a bigger impact, how to bring more of the community together, how to care for those who might need or welcome it with a little more warmth.
And I wrote up a proposal Thursday night, pitched it to the Activities Director at E.Dene Moore on Friday, and got the green light to:
Plan a Prom at the Nursing Home! on April 24th. I am hoping to get local hairdressers to style the women's hair that afternoon, and I have permission to borrow decorations from the high school prom which is the week before. I'm thinking Glen Miller and Cole Porter and wheeling people around the dance floor. I'm thinking the women deserve tiarra's if they want them, and punch if allowed, and maybe a red carpet walk with some of the kids from the high school decked out in their best from the week before.
I will have a lot of planning and work to do before then, and after this week, I'll continue with my small acts of kindness; but this way I can bring more people together and maybe make a bigger difference in the small corner of the world I'm living in.
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"I don't know if anyone brought them in from the cold, but this small act brightened my day and warmed my soul."
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's not how random acts of kindness are received that changes the collective consciousness. Maybe it's that they are given at all. Or maybe it's just that they cause the giver joy, and each moment that we spend in joy positively affects the collective.
And maybe, with the ones thrown in the street, you just planted a seed - the seed of "being able to receive" or "appreciate" in the heart of someone who was unable at that time to do those things. Who knows how it may bloom inside them in the years to come?
Or maybe you've just made a few people (like myself) who heard the story be a little bit more aware to look for little bits of unexpected beauty everywhere in the world, because we never know who may have put it there intentionally. :-)
Thanks for sharing your honesty, Kerri :-).
Thank you for your thoughtful response Katrina. Your response too, is a seed now planted within me. I think you're right. We never know how long it takes or what conditions might later occur to help the seeds we've planted to grow.
ReplyDeleteYour words provide for me conditions of promise and hope....and that's enough to sprout a little inspiration to keep on going.
Thank you!