Last Tuesday I was a little bit surprised when I received an email from Vanessa.
And in the first few sentences I was a little stunned as I read this…
“So every so often I think about you and I forget that I don’t know you in real life. I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for being real and authentic on your blog. Real enough to make people who haven’t met you feel like they have and that they know you and that wasn’t it just yesterday that we were going out for coffee together? Oh yeah. Right. We’ve never “met”.”
She went on to say more and it was by far one of the sweetest things a friend/reader has ever sent me. My eyes started to well up with tears because I kinda couldn’t believe that someone sat down, out of the blue, out of their busy life, to say that to me.
I emailed her back after I took it all in for a while, happy that I could make someone feel that way. I thanked her for her words and her kindness and that she took the time to express those things to me.
A few days later I decided to pass on the love and emailed one of my blog friends who inspires me pretty much daily and THANK her for her inspiration and her support and friendship (you know who you are). The fact of the matter is, I could send out several of emails like that. Each one would be different in its own way, per friend of course, but on that day, I felt the need to send it to her.
Do you have someone in our blogging community that you want to thank or send love to? Then do it.
There’s no time like the present.
On the same day I sent my email I read this amazing post by Kat.
(go ahead and read it)
She helped someone when they were in need and as I read her story I got chills and the tears started. Her heart is so big and amazing and I feel like if we lived closer we would hang out a lot.
Anyway, her story is especially relevant because my (our) chance to help someone came right up to me at the doors of our church this morning.
As Tim was dropping me off for choir rehearsal before church, right there before me stood an elderly lady, who looked rather haggard. I saw her for just a moment and then turned to say “bye” to the kids in the van and when I turned back around she asked, “Can you give me a ride to Wal-Mart?”
I immediately thought of Kat’s story and I looked at Tim in the driver’s seat and said, “Can you give her a ride to Wal-Mart?”
He said, “Sure”.
She quickly hopped into the same seat I had just vacated and off they went.
She was just a destitute little, old lady who needed food and help. Turns out Tim gave her some money as well, which was fine by me. He said she told him that she has Diabetes and she thanked him up and down for the money.
I don’t know her story at all. I literally saw her myself for less than 5 seconds. But I am glad we were able to help her today, even just a little bit.
All I know is that just like our priest said today, we are all a part of the Body of Christ. And no matter what you believe, that to me simply means we are all a part of the greater good and we are here to help each other in this big crazy world of ours.
I’m not here to preach or brag… That woman could have asked anyone for a ride. But she was put in front of me, a person who had just read some pretty amazing things the week before and really felt the need to pass on the good.
I hope you get a chance to do the same sometime soon too…
Oh, I LOVE this, Elaine!
I do think of you as someone I know, a friend. Someone I will hug when we meet, and it doesn’t feel odd at all that we’ve never actually ‘met’.
You have a beautiful heart. xo
I love you. That is all.
(Except that your heart is golden.You know that, right?)
xo
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. This is why I can’t close my accounts and walk away from the social media world. There’s too much good. Thanks for sharing.
It is so amazing what some words of positive encouragement can do for a person.
Okay, now I’m bawling all over the place. Seriously. You are so awesome. I just love ya.
Thank you so much for the mention and the kind words. You know I had reservations about posting that story but I’m so glad I did because now I got to witness (read about) your good deed and I’m sure it will inspire others to do good deeds as well. It is like that commercial where one person smiles at another and that causes that person to smile and say “hello” to the next person and the smiles just spread. I think good deeds spread too. Well done you, and well done Tim. Love ya both!!!
And yes. If we lived closer I have a feeling we would be hanging out all the time. 🙂
If only a few more people in this world felt this way what a huge difference we could make. I hope someone comes across your blog and needs a swift kick in the bootie to help someone else out. And I hope that they do.
Thank you for the swift kick, I needed it!
You are so special.
This is fantastic! I saw a video going around FB showing various people performing simple acts of kindness, and I thought to myself “We should be doing these things every day!” It should’t take a video to remind us that we need to be kind and help someone who has dropped a stack of books, for example. I’m so glad you were able to show your kindness to that woman, and that someone showed kindness to you.
Love, love this. I sent a blogger a note last week to thank her for a kindness she showed me once, and I hope she appreciated it. But, either way, it did my heart good to say thanks!
Fantastic post!
I just love this! I love the lifting of people up instead of the tearing down.
When we lived in another house, it was raining and we saw a guy walking in a Target shirt and name tag..we knew that’s where he was headed and he was going to be soaked. We stopped eating, got in the car, and told him we would take him. Super risky and he thought we were crazy, but he got in and off he went.
I’m so glad you passed on the good. It feels great to do something small that can make a big difference in someone’s day. Your blog was one of the first “mom” blogs I found after I had Jack and I remember instantly feeling comfortable here : )
So beautiful!! And yes- we never know when those moments are going to present themselves so we need to be ready- ready to spread the good.