kindnesschallenge

#52SmallThings
I like that i am creative & passionate

I took a holiday with my husband to Turks and Caicos. I pampered my husband for five days. He deserves it. I bought handmade wares on north Caicois and paid double to a woman who told me people complain about prices. Her work was stunning.
#52SmallThings

I am feeling quite proud of myself today and I’m glad I was able to clean out more of my office so I could make it a better place for me to well, do work! :) I now have a better access to all of my fidget toys and all of my writing instruments, which will help me in the long run. Most importantly, it is not dusty! Now, all I have is my second desk (first one is for planning, second for writing. :) and my storage chest. Oh, and a box of things but I’ll probably have to go through that with my family. So proud of being able to tidy up! And I’m being kind to myself by making a better working environment. :) #kindnesschallenge

Amxiety is a word for that time when you don’t want to face the world in the morning and you’d just rather stay in bed. At least, for me. I have anxiety, so I can say it. Woke up late today, but I was really awake around a half hour before I woke. I just didn’t want to leave my warm, cozy bed. This is why I cannot have a weighted blanket (lol). Then I would stay in bed all day! And not that that’s a bad thing, but I need to get up and get going. So I’ve gotta figure out how to do that better on days I don’t work in the morning. Any suggestions? Hoping to get some reading and writing done today. :) Also, working on the #kindnesschallenge #52SmallThings

#kindnesschallenge I am being kind to myself by not being negative towards myself today on this cold day. It’s pretty frigid outside, to say the least, but I’m determined to work on some stuff today and just keep warm. Also, I’m doing yoga again today. It seems to help when I’m cooped up in the house. I am thankful for my house today. Also, I’m glad for blankets and dogs. #ThankfulTrain Time to read!

I started this week's challenge by enjoying a peaceful Sunday, drinking coffee and watching Law & Order SVU (my favorite show!) from my comfortable sofa. Feeling pritty good!!!
#52SmallThings

One of my very favorite memories of kindness was something that Ben did for me during one of our visits to Walt Disney World after his #ALSLouGehrigsDisease had progressed a bit. We loved to meet Pooh and friends at the Crystal Pavilion brunch, but Ben was unable to walk around the buffet or carry his plate at the Crystal Pavilion, so I got him settled at our table and got our lunch. When I returned to the table, Ben told me that I had just missed Pooh, and that he told Pooh that I would be so disappointed to have missed him. Ben’s speech was impaired and he hoped that Pooh understood what he said. Sure enough, as I went to take my seat, Pooh came running towards me with outstretched arms and he gave me a big hug. He tapped his head, showing me that he remembered to come back to see me. It was so sweet and Ben was beaming. You see, with ALS, I was always doing things for Ben, and in this situation, he was able to do something very special for me. #kindnesschallenge #Kindness

We lost my Mom earlier this year to bronchiectasis, a condition that weakens the lungs. At times, but for the oxygen tank, one might not believe that she suffered any illness at all. But she was also susceptible to episodes of infection and breathlessness that would leave her terrifyingly desperate for air.    

After a hospital stay this past winter, we had to consider whether or not to have Mom spend some time at a rehab center. But the relentless grind of the disease had finally taken her to a place of acceptance.  She decided to spend her last days at my sister’s house under hospice care. A private ambulance company arrived with two young EMT’s to take her home; two men, maybe in their mid-twenties.            

The ride home took only a few minutes. I arrived at about the same time as the ambulance and walked toward the front door with the EMT’s, stopping at the outside stairs. They assured me that they could safely get her inside. One of the EMT’s wheeled Mom down the walkway on a stretcher. The other rolled over a “stair chair” and placed it in front of her.  

Just as they were getting ready to transfer her from stretcher to the chair, one of the fellas said to Mom, “OK, are you ready?” She was now sitting up. He positioned himself in front of her with his arms extended, to assist her in standing. “Yup,” she said, and with a little hint of jest in her shaky voice, “I guess we’re going to do a little dance, huh?" And with that, the young man abruptly stopped. “Wait, wait,” he said excitedly, as he pulled his cellphone from his pocket. Almost as if he had planned the moment, he cued up Frank Sinatra singing, "Fly me to the Moon."

The young EMT helped my thin and feeble mother to her unsteady feet and for about thirty seconds, the two of them gently swayed back and forth under a windless, November moonlit sky, being serenaded by Ol’ Blue Eyes himself. “Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars…” Her feet shuffled tenderly, wrapped in only slippers. She was bundled up in a white cotton hospital blanket. She was seventy-seven years old. He was a young man in an EMT uniform, likely overworked and underpaid. They could hardly have been at more different stages in life. He did not know my mother. He owed her nothing.  “Let me see what Spring is like, on Jupiter and Mars…”  Yet, here they were, sharing a remarkable moment in time; a moment that he appeared to enjoy as much as she did.  

I was captivated by this young man’s instinctive gesture of compassion. I still am. It may just be the most genuinely pure act of kindness I have ever personally witnessed. I remember thinking at the time that this would likely be the last chance my mother got to dance in this life. As fate would have it, that thought would come to be true. I will be forever grateful to the young man who set aside a simple thirty seconds to dance with my dying mother. And "Fly Me to the Moon" will be forever fixed in my heart.       

#kindnesschallenge

#randomactofkindness