Back when the husband and I were first married, I was fulfilling my new-bride task of writing thank you notes for all the generous gifts we had been given. (Random funny story: Someone gave us an electric teakettle which we promptly returned because we’re LDS and don’t drink tea – and also we lived in a 500 sq ft studio apartment and counter space consisted of our two-person table. The store gave me a whopping 75$ for it which thrilled me to no end. Who knew they were so pricey? But then two weeks later we got a call saying that what was in the box was not an electric teakettle but rather a cut-glass Easter basket. We had to go back to the store and give them $75 to buy back our tchotchke. But hey, that’s what every newlywed couple needs – a 10-lb glass bowl that you can either use to gather Fabrege eggs OR slit your wrists!) Anyhow, every manners book said it wasn’t enough to just write “Dear Mr. & Mrs. Johnson, Thank you for the set of towels.” No, you are supposed to tell them how beautiful they are and what you are using them for. Well, a lot of people gave us money and so in the spirit of erring on the side of too much honesty I wrote on all those thank-you cards “Thanks for your generous gift. We are saving up to buy a bed so we don’t have to sleep on the floor anymore. Love, Charlotte.”
About a month later we found a money order from Grand Junction Colorado, a place where we know nary a soul, in our mailbox. It was for $250 with a post-it note that said “Buy a bed.”
I was floored. The husband was floored. Never in our lives had we been the recipients of such charity. And there wasn’t even a return address to send a thank-you card to! After admiring the large sum of money for a while we decided to follow our anonymous benefactors instructions and buy a bed. It’s the same queen bed we sleep on to this day, 10 years later. Every time I make it I am reminded of what a gift we received. Every night before I crawl into it I say a prayer asking God to help me find a way to pay it forward (and also, if He’s not too busy, to help my children learn to vomit during the daytime instead of the middle of the night. And in the toilet. Thank you). I’ve been blessed to find ways both small and large to anonymously help a sister (or brother!) out and today we all get another chance to do something small to help out another.
This is one of those miracles though that starts out small but if we all do it, it will be huge! What do you have to do? Just leave a comment on MizFit’s site any time between now and midnight on the 23rd and she and her husband will donate (out of their not-fantastically-wealthy-but-oh-so-good-hearted pockets) a set amount per comment to an Austin area homeless shelter. And all you have to do is head over to her site and leave a comment!
So, while you’re here, leave me a comment and tell me about an act of service that someone did for you that was particularly meaningful and then head over there and help her help the homeless! (Or if you are on a comment budget today, just forego the commenting here and go directly to her site.)
One more piece of information that I know will greatly excite some of you: Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple is thisclose to premiering his book The Primal Blueprint. Go check out the chapter descriptions and the table of contents for a sneak peak at what the Guru of all things Primal has to say!
Have a great weekend!
Your posts always make me laugh, or at least smile way more than I should when I’m staring at my PC at work! 🙂 And I love that this post is so selflessly orientated. I love doing good deeds, but normally for people I know because then I can reap the benefits of seeing how much they appreciate it, thus turning a charitable act into a selfish one on my part! 🙂 So I am really touched by the generosity of that anonymous charitable soul who literally gave you a bed to sleep on!
Being a fiercely (bordering on aggresive!) independent woman, it’s rare that anyone gets a chance to help me out with something, but when they do… I just melt like the big softie I’m pretending not to be! 🙂
My company is very involved in local charities actually, and when I ran the 7km race back in October my colleagues contributed a generous €500 towards the ISPCC – the Irish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. But that was months ago, so I think a festive good deed is in order…
(thanks for the link! Im still searching for someONE or somePLACE to step up and match anything we make)
me? seemingly small but huge at time.
I was living in a third world country where life was just hard. tiring. foreign. I didnt speak the language.
My birthday morning the people with whom I lived (think commune. we knew each other but werent friendsfriends) surprised my by going out and doing ALL MY GROCERY SHOPPING.
forget the money 🙂 it was the gift of not having to haul the food, by food, back from the marketplace as we were ALL beaten down at that point.
I literally cried when I opened my minifridge and saw it filled.
not anonymous—but loving.
(and I love the anonymous. it’s the way we Jews roll :))
Up here in the great white north (okay, Ottawa is only an hours drive from New York state, but it’s Canada…anyhow, I digress!) We are occasionally hit with large snow falls.
We got hit with about a foot of snow two weeks ago. As a SAHM to a 2 year old girl who hates the snow, I don’t have much time in a day to deal with it. My husband was on a business trip at the time so as soon as I put my daughter to bed, I had to head out to shovel the snow for the second time that day. As I was about 2/3 done, I started dreading where the sidewalk plow had some by, leaving a big pile in it’s midst. Then along comes down the street, a snow blower 🙂 He kindly did the end of the driveway for me and then continued on to help others on the street. What made it even more special is that he had just brought his 2 week old son home from the hospital after spending an extra week there due to the baby having a colapsed lung. Of all the people on the street, he’s the one who’s sleep deprived, stressed and exhausted in every way. Yet he still took the time to help others.
I was in college and working at a hotel (at the front desk..checking guests in and out etc..)We had a lounge in the hotel and one older gentlemen came in every Tuesday/Thursday to sing Karaoke. He would say Hi, ask me about life and go and sing. This went on for about 6 months…nothing more than that. One night I shared about my bills in college and if only I had about $1000 I would be in such a better state. (Seriously, I wasn’t pitching for any thing!! This is a small town ….no body has any extra money (and honestly he was not dressed nor did he act like he had an extra to spare any way) to me he seemed like a man who just loved to sing and that was his entertainment for the week….the money comment was just some thing I said while talking and I thought nothing more of it)
The next time he came in he set 10-$100 bills on the desk. I just about died!!! I told him to take it and explained how I cannot take it as a gift or at all. He said, “It’s cash…you take it and use it as you need…there is no way to trace it to me and I will not claim it…it is for you. UGH!!!! Now, what do I do??? Then he left. There was the cash sitting on the desk for about 2 minutes…I totally expected him to be around the corner and to jump out saying, “JOKE”..”Tricked YA” but, no he was gone. He didn’t go into the lounge that night to sing and I never saw him again for about a year.
Finally, I did see him walking on the streets down town, we passed, and as I thought of his amazing gift and what I should say to him he never looked at me or acknowledged me at all. That was it. I never saw him again.
I often think of him throughout my days …especially when I talk to a struggling college student. I have given some I meet a little some thing….nothing close to the gift he gave me. But, maybe some day I will be able to help some one to the extent he helped me.
I love you (you write beautifully, punctuate and spell properly, and do all the research so I don’t have to) and hate you (I have been doing nothing except reading your site since finding it yesterday, aside from taking short bathroom breaks and a yoga class, which I almost blew off for my laptop). No, actually I don’t hate you. You are awesome, honest, very brave, and very very beautiful–both outside and inside (where it counts more).
Although I’ve been coming out of the tailspin my life took after I turned 40, I was in the thick of things last August. I’ve been working out a lot of my STUFF through yoga, and was in a workshop in the Berkshires. I was not in a good place mentally and emotionally, and to cap things off, my arms gave out during handstand and I crashed on my head. I sat there, beating myself up mentally until a woman I didn’t know who was sitting behind me came up to me to make sure I was okay and offered some encouraging words. I pulled myself together and finished my practice, and at the end, while I was packing up my things, this woman, whose name I didn’t even know, came up to me and gave me a real hug and a kiss on my cheek and whispered something really nice that I can’t even remember now. It made me burst into real tears, and I’m not a weepy person.
Although it wasn’t charity in the conventional sense, that woman gave me the only gift I could have possibly received at that point in my life, and I am so grateful to her for her warmth and compassion. Ever since then, I have been trying to pay it forward and pass it along, as well as looking for those moments of beauty when you’re knee-deep in it. It’s hard, but oh-so-worthwhile.
Too many wonderful surprise gifts to mention! I did get an anonymous money order in the mail one year from someone?? thanking me for the work I do. Pretty special.
Beautiful post, Charlotte!!
Hmm-teapot story…hilarious 🙂
Once I actually tried to pawn some old jewelry so that I could buy my family Christmas presents. I was fresh out of college, history degree in hand, and working at Starbucks…and completely broke. I was flabbergasted at how much the pawn guy offered me and walked out refusing to take his offer. A man approached me in the parking lot asking me why I was trying to sell my jewelry, and I told him the truth. He then handed me a $50 bill and walked away before I could say a word. I will never forget his act of kindness.
A few months after moving to California, where I knew nobody and was having a heck of a time meeting people, I mentioned in a chat room that I was so lonely I could barely stand it.
A woman who lived about 40 miles from me sent me an IM with directions to a quilt shop with next door coffee shop and told me to meet her there in one hour.
When I was deep in lonely, she reached out and made me human again.
It is SO sweet!
Recently a client came in for an evening appointment, and she had mentioned that there’s these mini oranges to my mum/boss and me. After her appointment was over, she went out to the store and returned at about 8pm just before we closed up with 2 boxes of mini oranges! It was so kind of her to do that, and she had a long drive home on a very cold night, too. It was a simple gesture but it really meant a lot that she would go that extra effort for us.
Love what MizFit’s doing! And these stories are so inspiring.
For some reason, I’m having trouble recalling a great generosity story myself (more coffee may help), but it’s a good exercise for me to think about it today.
Great post!
I’ve gotten several fairly large monetary gifts before (don’t ask – we have great friends, one of whom happens to be ungodly rich), but none were anonymous.
Once, though, when my daughter was about 5, I was in a Hastings store (books, music, videos, etc.). I was trying to glance through the CDs, and my daughter was acting like an impatient little girl, and I was telling her to wait and then we’d look at books and toys. A minute later, some man walked over to me, handed me a gift card, and said “Buy something for your little girl.” I guess it was obvious I was a young, poor single mother at the time. I was floored, and he disappeared out the door before I even had time to thank him.
I love what MizFit is doing. Off to comment there right now …
Great post, as always!
A few years ago I was single and very cash-strapped. One evening, after a prayer meeting, this lovely couple walked me to my car. When I started the car they heard the roar of my tattered exhaust and the husband told me that he would pay for me to have it fixed. I was so grateful, since I really didn’t have the money at that stage.
Years later I was married and financially comfortable. When I bought a new car, we decided to put wider rims and tyres on it and the original (brand new) tyres went into the store room. A few months later an acquaintance, who was going through a tough time, was driving around on very bald tyres, so I gave her the tyres from the store room.
I love the stories about random acts of kindness… Those are the best kind!
That is a wonderful story!!!!!
When I was in my 20’s, single, living in Manhattan, I tried to save money by walking instead of taking the subway. There were always a lot of homeless folks on the streets, and I’d try to give what I could (or at least buy ’em a bagel). One day I was pretty broke, so when one man held out his paper cup to me, I apologized and told him I didn’t have any to give. So, without a word, he looked into his cup, then offered it to me. It was all the money he had in the world, and probably amounted to about $1.05. I didn’t take it, of course, but his gesture broke my heart and filled it at the same time.
(Next time I saw him I gave him more than usual!)
I think of that man a lot. When I start to think I have nothing left to give, I remember a man who was willing to give a total stranger everything he had, even though it was so little.
I love your stories too, but usually when i read them, i think “how the hell does she remember all that?”
I can barely remember what i had for breakfast but you seem to have ever second of your life chronicalled. or maybe my life is just boring.
Kelly Turner
http://www.everygymsnightmare.com
Once, in Starbuck’s, I was on the phone with BK, telling him how tired I was (getting up at 4:45 to commute into Manhattan for my unpaid internship for the EEOC, which made me feel like I was making a difference, even though I had to work a weekend job to cover the cost of commuting), and the man in front of me not only paid for my beverage, but bought me a cookie.
Shivers – what a lovely gesture from your work colleagues! And how lovely of you as well to run the race for charity. That’s a great cause.
MizFit- I think that’s what makes a charitable act so meaningful – when the person knows exactly what you need and fills that need. I love that your comrades (?) did that for you. Sometime you must tell me more about your adventure!
Patricia – Doesn’t it seem like it’s usually the people who have the least to give who give them most? What a great story – and living in the midwest I know exactly how much of a help that is to have someone snowblow the end of the driveway. It takes me 15 minutes to shovel my driveway… and another 20 just to undo the damage from the snowplows!
Anonymous (1) – Wow!! That is one of the most generous stranger gifts I have ever heard of! Truly amazing. I got all goosebumpy reading about it!
Anonymous (2) – Aw, I love you too! I am so glad you found me and am enjoying the site! I love what I do and it makes it 10 times better when other people enjoy it as well:) I hope to see you around here often! And thank you for the story of the well-timed hug and kiss. Physical affection can be absolutely healing when done in the right way. i’m so glad someone saw that need in you and was open enough to fill it!
Dr. J – Thank you notes, when sincerely done, can mean so much more than any material gift!
heather McD – The kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze me! What a touching story. I am so glad that man was there to help you and that you were able to accept the money!
Deb – everytime I hear a scary Internet meet-up story, I think about all the examples I know like the one you gave. People who don’t even know us but still “know” us and love us! I’m so happy she was there for you!
Sagan – It really is the little things, isn’t it? What a sweet gesture from you client! And little oranges are the best!
Crabby – it’s hard to come up with stuff on the spot, I know:) Feel free to stop back later if something comes to mind!
Judy – How sweet that instead of chastising you for not keeping your daughter quiet, that stranger instead took the opportunity to lift you up and help you! Your story just made me grin.
Hanlie – How wonderful that they could help you out and even more wonderful that you could take the opportunity to pay it forward years later! The world is a better place because of things like this.
Azusmom – Girl, you just made me tear up! Talk about the Widow’s Mite. What a touching story.
Kelly – I do seem to be blessed with a pretty good memory:) But it also helps that I keep a journal! Writing down all this stuff helps keep it available for random story telling. Which I apparently really like to do!
Tricia – How cool of that person to just step in and do that for you! I bet it just made your whole day! (And, btw, cool internship!!)
I will definitely head over and comment. I always mean to comment over there so this is a good excuse to start! 😉
I remember when I was 16, my friend and I were driving home one night and saw a woman on the side of the freeway with the familiar “homeless” sign. We went to the grocery store, bought her some snack packs of chips and pies and went and handed it to her. She looked truly grateful.
I’m very much like Shivers – I am fiercely independent. Case in point, I ran up my credit cards and ate only ramen for a few years after college instead of just asking my parents for money. The best kindness, imo, is compliments. When someone comes up to me and gushes about my necklace, and it’s one I made myself, that makes my week.
I think I definitely need to run some charity races next year. Good thing I live in Austin where there’s like 3 a week. 🙂
What a great post and link. I just ran over there to comment.
(and also, if He’s not too busy, to help my children learn to vomit during the daytime instead of the middle of the night. And in the toilet. Thank you).
Lol. Made me laugh because I’ve so been there. What puzzles me is how they let go as soon as they step into the bathroom. So close, yet so far away.
I also enjoy your blog. You make writing look easy. 🙂
mrss
That’s an excellent story. I love the part about how you’re still reminded of this generous gift so many years later. 🙂
Well, we were going on vacation and needed hot water to make all our little “just add water” cups o’ carb crap, so my husband bought me an electric tea kettle! Never made a caffeinated beverage of any sort with it, but I use it at least once a day to pour hot water over my oatmeal, to hard boil eggs, and a zillion and three other uses. What a guy. You totally need one. A tea kettle, not a guy. You already have one of those, a lot of those!
My best wedding gift was from my recently married friend. She said, “I know your grateful, so part of the gift is not having to write us a thank you card.” I always get nervous about wording them just right and possibly mixing up who gave what – times that by a couple hundred people and it gets overwhelming.
Another great gift I received was a ride from an old lady I didn’t know. College = dirt poor and I spent all my money on supplies to make Christmas gifts at the craft store (no bus money) and was trying to walk home a few miles in the snow with arms full and bags tearing. A little old lady pulled up in her car and said, “Don’t you ever do this with anyone else but a little Grandma like me. Get in and I will take you home.”
Another time I ran out of gas inbetween towns because the gas gage on my 1967 Volkwagon Bug stopped working. A couple stopped to help me. I hoped that they were sincere about the “Jesus Fish” on the back of their car and Handel’s Messiah in the tape deck, (and not serial killers) because I got in their car and they gave me a ride to the gas station, filled up a container of gas and put it in my car.
My husband’s best gift was something he bought in Korea before he even met me. It’s a little jewelery box and he bought it hoping he would get married some day and could give it to his wife – very romantic.