It's Not About The Cookies

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” - Dalai Lama

It was a casual Sunday afternoon, staying home, grilling and doing odds and ends around the house I can’t get to during the week. Sometime around 2pm, while working upstairs, I heard the doorbell. I heard Lori answer it with a nice greeting, then I heard her ask “How much do I owe you?” I then heard her repeat, “Twelve dollars, okay, give me just a minute.”

They were the Girl Scout Cookies she had ordered and they just came in. Ten years ago I’d ask if they were the Do-Si-Do’s that I loved or the Thin Mints I’d like to eat after refrigerated. But these days, I don’t have much a sweet tooth and have some discipline around cookies and ice cream, where I confess I have weakness in other areas.

I didn’t think much more about this transaction until the next day, Monday at work.

I heard the voice of a gentleman who works for us outside my office door in some conversation. I took from the pieces I heard he was giving away some cookies. My door being opened, he walked in with a box and offered me some girl scout cookies. Not a cookie, boxes of cookies, as he was carrying some boxes around in a fairly large cardboard case.

Bobby told me that he had his Girl Scout Cookies delivered yesterday and he bought more than he would eat. I asked him how many he bought and he sheepishly smiled and told me $150 worth. Bobby doesn’t have six kids in the house, he’s single, so I asked him why he bought so many, somewhat knowingly I knew the answer.

“She was so cute” he said. “As I looked at her sheet she only had orders for one from other folks and I kinda of felt bad for her, so I wanted to help her out. “

I thought back about our order for $12 and felt a little guilty. I asked Bobby a few questions more about this. The little girl was about seven years old and she was with her little sister as their father paraded them through his neighborhood. The rest of the story I knew.

If you know Bobby, you know he is one of the most compassionate guys you’ll meet. He will sacrifice personal pleasure to make someone else happy (but that is what makes him happy.) It wasn’t about the cookies, it was about pleasing that girl and her feeling special. The $150 meant nothing. The ability to help someone and make them feel special meant everything. That is his “WHY”.

This is one dot in that girls life that one day I hope it helped create a bright and happy future. I hope she was able to ‘wow’ her troop with the order and feel a sense of accomplishment that elevates her in life and provides a confidence she can draw on forever.

It’s not about the cookies, it’s about young girls growing, developing self-esteem and confidence. It’s about you and me, and people like Bobby letting the compassion come out of ourselves, to see how we can impact others, and let the goodness in us out. It’s seeing beyond the obvious and transcending the moment.

We all are given opportunities to do something special like I believe Bobby did. The words we use, the few seconds we wait to hold the door for someone, the compliment we give, all have an effect. Our actions cascade through eternity.

It's In Your Heart

“If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one.” Mother Teresa



She was only in 3rd Grade, but she had already learned to be a ‘giver’. (Actually, I think it’s natural and most of us are born that way, we just become desensitized, look outward less and inward more.) She recognized a fellow student in need financially; something the young boy in her classroom whispered to her.

It wasn’t much money she had saved up from Christmas and birthday’s, but she knew she had $80 dollars, and when on the way home from school she told the story of the boy in her class who had a need and she wanted to give him her money, it gives a parent a warm feeling that your daughter’s heart is in the right place. But in the quiet of your mind it can also make you think if you have been so kind. Do I do enough?

I think back on that day, I think back of the child who had put a pair of socks on her Christmas list, and the little girl who asked for a bed. There are so many folks who need US to help. I CHALLENGE myself, my family and you to find a way to help others this holiday season.

Some of us have time to share, some of us have jackets we haven’t worn in years hanging in the closet that can keep someone warm, and there are those of us who have may have a few dollars to spare to help a charitable organization or church feed someone. The objective is getting out and helping; helping someone get through difficult times…….sending a child to school who has eaten a breakfast…..letting strangers know that people do care. Do what you know you should do!

If you read this, I hope it inspires you to help someone, a family, a friend, a stranger. If it does, please pass it on.

May your dreams be filled and blessings shower upon you!

THE EMBRACE

Sometimes it's better to put love into hugs than to put it into words. ~Author Unknown

THE EMBRACE

I can’t remember where I was, but the news on television caught my eye a few weeks ago. The scene has played over and over in my mind the past several weeks. A soldier, wounded by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Afghanistan, had just walked down the steps of an airplane where he was greeted by his family. As the news made light of the continued war, my focus was on the hug this young soldier had with his father.

It wasn’t so much it was a father-son hug more than a mother-son, mother-daughter, father-daughter, but it was the hug itself. It was how I knew how thankful they were to see one another again. How they loved one another. It was one of those defining moments when you look into someone’s eyes knowing that opportunity may not have been. The swell of emotions, the reflections of the past, when the heart swells like a rising tide, ready to pour out love that has been contained by time, or the thinking you have all the time in the world.

So it was in that hug, that embrace, between the father and son, that was another reminder to me that I shouldn’t, we shouldn’t, wait to tell or show someone we care. We shouldn’t wait to embrace them as if they would never be seen again, holding them near to the heart, just letting that loving energy flow, bringing peace and joy to the soul.

God created us to love, love Him and love one another.

Don’t wait

A Pair of Socks

“If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one.”

Mother Teresa

A few Christmas' ago, when Rebecca was still in elementary school, Lori volunteered to help a low income area neighboring community school raise Christmas gifts for kids in the same grade as Rebecca. The school had the kids fill out their 'list' of what they would like for Christmas and it was then provided to Lori for her and her team of volunteers to try and fill.

Every Christmas I can't help think back a couple of things on that list. One girl asked for a new pair of socks. Another asked for a bed. Yeah, a pair socks. Imagine that?

Those are those moments in your life that make you stop and think. Think to be thankful, and think that there are people out there struggling. With today's economic slowdown I know there are people out there with needs, maybe even struggling to feed their family this Christmas.

I CHALLENGE myself, and my family, to do something this season that will help someone or a family in need directly and indirectly. To open our eyes, ears, arms, minds, and hearts to those in need.

If only a pair of socks can brighten a child's day, I should be able at least to brighten their holiday season.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN SOMEONE'S LIFE TODAY

"The purpose of life is not to be happy - but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all." ~Leo Rosten









"Make a difference in someone's life today."

If you are around my house on a Saturday morning you will often hear me say that to Sarah, our high school senior, as she leaves the house at 8:30am on the way to gym to teach young girls gymnastics. As I said this yesterday our youngest Rebecca was listening and I turned the conversation to her and we discussed how "it's the little things we can do that can make a difference."

Now that Sarah drives herself to the gym, I miss those 20 minutes there and back having these discussions in more detail and in a captured setting. But I know the thought has sunken in as today, Sunday, she is leaving to go back to the gym, normally she has Sunday off, to run a birthday party for one of her students. Sarah asked me for a few bucks to buy the girl a birthday present saying "this little girl loves me."

How do we make a difference? We make a difference by caring and giving. We make a difference by consciously deciding to leave someone feeling better through our engagement than hoping to take something from it. It doesn't necessarily mean a tangible act, but could just be kind words of encouragement, hope, or love lifting someones feelings, thoughts, and emotions about themselves.

Whether it's with friends, coworkers, family, or strangers we meet at the store, coffee shop, track meet or wherever, what we do and say can "Make a Difference in Someone's Life Today."

PICTURE: Stan and Cynthia Myslenski canoeing down the Farmington River with their kids and grandkids making a difference.