Kindness

My cutest mother had a birthday while I was home for Christmas break. 

Instead of wanting to celebrate her special day like any other birthday girl might, she wanted to spend the day doing 51 (sorry for bustin' you out like that Mom!) random acts of kindness.  We made a list of ideas we had and left room for opportunities that we happened upon.  My mom printed out these cute little cards to leave at the scene of our acts.

We split up into two cars and were off to fill the world...or just Thousand Oaks with kindness.  I got to go with my mom and dad.  We started off making a quick stop at Traders Jo's to buy a few bunches of gerber daisies to take to the cute little ladies at the senior living center down the street.  

While we were in line to buy the flowers, we noticed the opportunity to post one of these adorable flyers that we printed.  Aren't they great!?  I hope that people really tore off the tabs and took what they needed; may it be hope, courage, laughter, or a little bit of strength.  It's like something you find posted on every street corner in a perfect world!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the cute little ladies at the senior living center with their flowers.  I just got so excited about how their faces  lit up in surprise, i guess.  

There weren't a whole lot of ladies out and about, there seemed to be kind on bingo tournament that we weren't aware of, so we had a few leftover flowers.  Which leads me to our next random act...

We multi-tasked in the Ralph's parking lot.

My dad and I found all (or most) of the shopping carts left in the parking lot. So, we gathered them up and took them back to there cozy little shopping cart home at the front door.  As i would be collecting a few carts i would see a shopper getting done putting their groceries in their car and offer to take their cart back for them;  people were astonished.  Most didn't agree at first to let me take it.  One guy, maybe in his mid-twenties, finally let me take his cart and he asked, "do you work for them?" "Nope, just putting them away."  "Really, just because?  Well thanks for your kindness!"  I can't even describe how happy it made me that he was so pleasantly surprised, so grateful, and recognized it as kindness.

At this point, I was on a roll.  The next random act was in my top 3 favorites.  We went through the drive-thru and got a diet coke, cause it was just that time of the day.  When we pulled up to the payment window, my dad told the girl that we would like to pay for the lady's meal in the car behind us in addition to our own order.  She seemed confused for a minute but then kindly obliged.  We gave her one of those cards that says 'please accept this random act of kindness' and asked her to hand it to the lady in the car behind us when she pulled up to pay.  So we pulled forward to the second window to get our drinks and I got to watch her (at first confusion and then) astonishment as the cashier handed her the card.  She waved and mouthed "thank you!" over and over again!!!!  It was SO fun, especially because we got to see her reaction!

This isn't the best picture but that's the lady in the car behind us!

So we took a little lunch break at the mall.  While we were waiting to be seated, my sister and I went to the candy machines and put a quarter in each machine without spinning it to get the candy.  We walked to the other side of the courtyard to watch what happened.  A cute little family with 3 young boys walked by.  One of the little boys noticed an unused quarter in one of the machines.  As he ran to retrieve his free candy, his brothers noticed the other machines with free candy awaiting them as well.  They scavenged the 20 or so machines and pocketed all of the candy and gumballs their little pockets could hold.  It was like a childhood dream that I had never even imagined. 

                                              

It was a fantastic day!  I found that making other people happy ultimately made me happy...funny how that works! And my cutest mother had her best birthday to date!!

Happy Birthday Mama!