Good deeds - Noticed!

Good deeds never go unnoticed. They just don't. I've been thinking about it a lot lately and today I learned a valuable lesson. Don't wait to do good deeds. Do them the minute the urge strikes and don't look back. You won't regret it.

This lesson came to me today when I was joining my son Noah at his preschool Thanksgiving feast. As I arrived to the school, I saw a man in the parking lot that looked like he had fallen on hard times. He looked about my age actually. He was loading what seemed to be all of his belongings into 2 shopping carts. He had a couple of rolling suitcases, some trash bags full of clothes, and some loose items that he was carefully organizing. I wasn't the only one walking through the parking lot today, there were a bunch of us. Nobody stopped to ask if he needed a hand. Nobody really even looked at him. I felt the urge to help him in some way, but I also felt the urge to look the other way. I was running late to begin with and I wasn't sure what to do anyway so I went in and we enjoyed our lovely feast. Songs, food, hugs, it was wonderful! But, while I was enjoying the fun time with my son, I was also having a discussion deep within myself. I made the decision that if he was still out there after the feast, I was going to give that man my $10. Besides the fact that I was shocked to have a $10 bill in my wallet (I absolutely NEVER have cash), the sight of this young man with his 2 carts really stuck with me. He must have a story, everyone does, And I knew that my $10 would mean way more to him than it would to me. Sadly, as we made our way back to our car, he was gone. I felt guilty in a way because I had an opportunity to do what I knew was a kind thing, and I waited. I waited too long and he was gone and that was that.

The reason I'm rambling on about this is only to say that I want to help! I am a mother to my kids, a wife to my husband, a friend to my friends, a relative to my relatives, but I am also a citizen of this world and I want to help. It's as simple as that.

A lady named Meg writes a blog called "Whatever" and she put a call out to all of us crafty people in the world to fill the "Water for Christmas" Etsy shop with our donations to help bring clean drinking water to people in Africa. Water. Not Martinelli's or Dr.Pepper. Not Starbucks or Orange Bang. WATER. Clean drinking water.

So I packed up one of my Christmas hearts and sent it on it's way. My donation is small, but if all of us crafty people donated one $10 item, think of the good we can do.

The Water for Christmas Etsy shop will be stocked with donated items by 12/5 I believe. What a great way to spend your Christmas shopping money - giving clean drinking water to those in need. This one deed doesn't let me off the hook for the future, but I'm happy that I took advantage of the opportunity to give back when I had the chance. Geez. This post is kinda heavy. Just tryin' to tug on those heart strings a bit :) xo