I Haven't Broken Any New Year's Resolutions...Yet

Okay, so 2016 is only a week old.

Okay, so I didn't make any big New Year's Resolutions.

This year, I'm going to work on small stuff.  I mean, unless your name is Jack and you traded your cow for magic beans, a seed isn't going to become something big overnight.

I'm looking at small changes, small challenges, small random acts of kindness.

Small stuff.

It's already paying off, even though I didn't intend for it to. My favorite Starbucks barista currently works in the Starbucks inside Food Pyramid in Stillwater, OK.

A week or so before Christmas, we were talking about birthdays close to Christmas. She mentioned she was going to turn 20 on December 23. That's Christmas Adam! (You know, right before Christmas Eve?). She also said that she was going to have to work all by herself that day. Dang! Working by yourself, with no backup, on your birthday which is two days before Christmas kinda sucks.

Well, being in the Christmas Spirit, I gave her a bigger tip than usual, telling her to save it for her birthday. Then, on December 23, my daughter and I went back to the store to pick up some last-minute items for baking Christmas goodies and, sure enough, there was the Starbucks gal, shivering in a blanket because every time the automatic doors to Food Pyramid swooshed open, a cold Winter wind blew in, right toward the Starbucks spot.

I didn't get any coffee that day, but I put a couple of dollars in her tip jar and wished her Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas. She was delighted that we remembered her birthday, and thanked us for remembering and for the tip.

I felt pretty good as I was shopping, and when an elderly lady dropped a package of frozen food before it reached her cart, I scurried over and picked it up for her.

Small stuff.

And I've carried it over to the New Year. I've gone a little out of the way to help others, to compliment people, to pick up litter when I get out of my car, to spend more time actually actively listening to people, and to, for lack of a better term, be a Boy Scout towards others.

And the payoff?

Yesterday, I went to the store with my daughter. Our favorite barista was there. We ordered our usual drinks, and she put an extra shot of chocolate in our order at no charge. When her coworker asked her about the extra chocolate, she replied, "Hey, these are my people! I gotta take care of them."

My people. Your people. I think if we take the time to do a little extra for our people, the world will be even better.

Small stuff. Start there.

An Act of Kindness to a Stranger

   I gave a man $10 today.  
   I was in Tulsa, and he approached me, asking if I had "anything against a brother from Stillwater."  
   I smiled and said, "Well, I'm from Stillwater and no, I don't have 'anything against a brother.'"
   He needed to pay off a bill in Tulsa before he could head back to Stillwater when he had just landed a fulltime job.  He showed me the bill and said he still had a ways to go.
I took a ten-dollar bill out of my billfold, handed it to him, and said, "Now you're $10 closer."
   He shook my hand and hugged me and said God must have sent me (actually, my wife had sent me to pick up some batteries on the way home from teaching in Tulsa, but he was so joyous I didn't mention that).
   I said, "I have confidence you'll get the rest of what you need."
   "Thank you for believing in me," he replied and hugged me again.


   Maybe I was played, but his troubles seemed genuine to me.  And who am I to judge?  I've had a bit of a struggle myself (massive understatement) for the past few years, so I'm probably more sympathetic to the plights of folks with misfortunes.  I'm all about good fortune, and if I can help it along, so much the better. 

I Hear Thunder!

   I also hear the pitter patter of raindrops falling outside.  I hope some of it will soak into the ground before it evaporates.  It is more than welcome around here, and the temperature outside is still 109.  Maybe it will cool things down a bit.
   On the other hand, it may stay hot and this rain, however brief, may make it more humid out there.  I'm going to hope for the best, though.
   This evening I am going to see the final Harry Potter movie with my kids.  I'm not sure when I went to a movie theater last, but I'm looking forward to sitting in a cool theater, eating popcorn, and watching a movie with the kids.  My daughter, who got movie tickets for her birthday, chose to treat us to a movie.  I fully expected her to go with her friends, but I guess that, considering all that has happened over the past couple of years, she thought we all deserved a treat.
   Yes, the gift of rain is a wonderful thing right now.  But the gift of kindness endures forever.