Yesterday at lunch, Knitting Daughter (aka Starbucks Barista) was telling us about a lady who comes through the drive-through line for her coffee and frequently pays for the person behind her, too. Now wouldn’t it be fun to drive up to the window and hear, “Yours is free today – the lady ahead of you took care of it.”? Since I frequent Starbucks quite a bit once in awhile, I decided that I’d do that on occasion, too. Not all the time. But maybe once a week. Which got me to thinking about other Random Acts of Kindness that I could be doing during this season of giving. And then I started thinking about how fun it would be if we all did that from now until the end of December! So we going to sponsor “Random Acts of Kindness Month” here at The Loopy Ewe. Each Monday, we’d love to have you leave a comment about a random act of kindness that you did during the past week. Some people like to do this anonymously (like me), but rest assured that the people you are being kind to probably have never heard of this blog, so you’re safe in sharing it with us. Not only will you enter yourself into a weekly drawing here, but you will inspire all of the rest of us with your ideas and kindness. (And really – inspiring others to random acts is, in itself, an act of kindness, right?) Since you’ve had no warning for today’s contest, I think it’d be great if you’d leave a comment about a RAK (Random Act of Kindness) that someone has done for you. That will give all of us some great new ideas. (Or if you do one today, enter it today.)
The prizes? Each week we’ll pull one name from the list (and if you do more than one act, leave more than one comment – you can be entered more than once) and we’re going to send you a fun Loopy Loot package worth at least $75. (Hey all of you book authors that are Loopy customers – and there are a lot of you! – if you’d like to donate an autographed copy of one of your books to put into one of these 6 drawings, we’d love that! Ditto to all of our Loopy indie dyers and Loopy indie artisans. I’m not going to email you and solicit products – we are happy to stuff the packages right from inventory here, too, but if you want to contribute, it could be your RAK for the week!) We will ship all winners at the same time – on January 2nd. That way we can make sure that all 6 packages are of equal value. We’ll do drawings for the next six Monday posts (including today and ending 12/31. We’ll draw on Tuesdays, so that all of the Monday comments will be included.)
I did go through the drive through today and I did pay for the person behind me. I was hoping that someone who really needed a free coffee would pull up behind me. Instead, a guy in a fancy sports car pulled up. What to do? Because of course I was making judgements about him and his fancy car and the fact that he could well afford his own coffee I wondered if he’d appreciate it? Then I stopped myself. I decided he must need a kindness today, so I went ahead and paid for him and then sped off as fast as I could so I would stay anonymous! And, unbelievably, on the back of my Starbucks cup today, I noticed that it says: “Pass the Cheer. A good way to pass the cheer when you’re on the road is to pay the toll for the car behind you. Do this and you might start to look at stoplights as holiday lights instead. Red means to stop and be thankful for a moment. Green means to out and do nice things.” What a coincidence! But you don’t have to spend money to show a RAK. How about letting the person behind you in the grocery line go first? Or go to the manager of the next store you shop at to tell him or her something nice about the person who checked you out. Or …. well, you get the idea. Share your other ideas with us.
Speaking of winning things, I totally forgot to announce the winner of our November Blog Contest last Friday. I think I was too involved with getting my holiday rules down (and you all added some very good ones to the list – thank you.) The winner of the November blog contest is: Genny. Genny has a fun Loopy credit in her account to spend on her next order. Thank you again for all of your great musical suggestions!
Lastly, we have more fun yarn coming from Cherry Tree Hill. We’ll be getting some very special Supersock, at a really good price (a savings which of course we pass right along to you.) More details when they arrive! We also just got a large shipment of Lorna’s Laces today, which we’ll be putting up. And we’re still working on this week’s Sneak Up for you. It’ll be a good one.
Sheri can’twaittohearaboutallofyourwonderfulkindnessesinthecomingmonth!
This is one that has stayed with me for years…. It may not seem like much, but it was MONUMENTAL to me.
I am not very close to one side of my family. I don’t let them know much about me and I don’t visit them, unless I am going with my sister. Several years ago, I had just broken up with my partner and was having a REALLY hard time with just living. I went from being a stay at home mom with my son to only seeing him half the week and it was devistating to me. Well, my sister got me to go to that side of my family’s house for Christmas with her on Christmas day and there was a large package for me under the tree.
Someone in my family…to this day, I still don’t know who…bought me a new TiVo because I had lost my other one in the divorce. I just started bawling and had to leave the room. A cousin came into the kitchen, where I was wiping my eyes and hugged me and said, “We all know how hard things have been for you lately and one of us wanted to give you something to brighten your day. We know it isn’t much, but we all do love you.”
I will never forget that amazing kindness.
I just love RAK. Your contest is “making me” go out of my way to do nice things. And…it’s just………… because………….
Yesterday…while driving home…I passed a house in the neighborhood and noticed that the owner’s car lights were on…I tried to peer through my window (it’s been pouring rain here in Hawaii) to see if anyone was sitting in the car….I couldn’t see anyone, so when I got home, I called the owners of the house and left them a message. (the owner was in the shower and called to thank me a few minutes later)…and then this morning…while driving to work, I noticed another car w/ it’s lights on. I assumed the car belong to someone working in a nearby retail store…I saw the owner of the store outside his shop, so I slowed my car down, rolled down my window (it’s still raining) and yelled that his employee’s car lights were on! He yelled out from across the street a big thank you…and gave me a huge huge smile!
I recently took coffee and donuts for all of the teachers at a local elementary school. These teachers (as are most!) are so dedicatd to helping the kids, and their families, and I wanted to show them how much they are appreciated. (I don’t have children attending this school, but have heard some wonderfuls stories from many of the boys on my husbands soccer team attend that school.)
I have always been a huge supporter of RAK. I have two that thought were biggies. Once a cabbie just dropped off this woman in front of our house because he couldn’t find the address she needed ( last Christmas) She was headed to a party in our ‘hood and the area is all cut up with canyons so it is very hard to navigate. She asked if she could use our phone, but I asked where she needed to go. My best friend had lived on that corner years ago, so I drove her myself. We still write to each other today. She is so nice.
I was going to donate my crib to charity or sell it at a garage sale, I was having parent teacher conferences last week ( as a student teacher) and I noticed one of my students has an older sister with a little baby and I wrote her a note asking if she needed the crib instead, she is picking it up this week!
I also try to always help the kids at school, write thank you notes to people, and always smile. It goes a long way! Merry Xmas!!! Juliblue
Recently I had surgery, and I was so surprised by the outpouring of kindness. Dinner was brought to my family. My favorite coffee and goodies were delivered and two friends brought lots of yummy treats for me and my family. These were amazing kindnesses for my family and myself while I was recovering.
I happen to be one of those folks who likes to put extra change in the meters, especially if I notice someone is waiting for my spot.
While my other RAK isn’t so anonymous, I am still glad I can do it. I have a dear friend, whom I met through SP10, who as it turns out lives 2 blocks from me. I invited her to join my knitting meetup group. She has really bad knees and has great difficulty getting about. So I made it my thing to get her to knitting meetings so she could get out and about and socialize more, as well as, do exactly what she enjoys…knitting with others.
I’m in upstate NY, and we get snow. I try and shovel sidewalk of the next door neighbor. He’s got a bad back, and often there’s just not enough snow for him to get the snow blower going. And really – it takes 5 extra minutes to shovel his sidewalk.
And then there’s community knitting, but we all do that, don’t we?
There’s a homeless man who sits outside of a local bookstore (in D.C.), to whom I often give whatever’s in my pocket. Sometimes more. He doesn’t have to do this, since it’s none of our business, but he always reassures people who give him money that he doesn’t drink, do drugs, or smoke. I think he has kidney disease, but I’m not sure. About two weeks ago, I came out of the store and there he was, in the bitterest cold of the season, without socks. It broke my heart.
When I got home, I immediately cast on a scarf for him (I don’t know his shoe size) and resolved to buy a package of socks, too. But he seemed to disappear (hopefully he is someplace warm). So I packed my scarf in my bag and took it with me, determined to give it away. And there, in front of the same bookstore, sat a man, “Tony,” who said he would give the scarf to the guy I’d knitted it for…It was pouring rain and very cold. I told Tony to keep the scarf for himself, not to give it away, but he wanted to pass it along to its intended recipient.
In talking with him, Tony told me about his kids, including one with spina bifida, who all live with different members of their family. He, himself, had a stroke and cannot work, and is waiting for Social Security to pay him disability—a long, long process.
When I heard about his kids, I urged him to give it to one of them if he wouldn’t keep it himself. Suddenly his face lit up and he said “I just realized…that scarf is knitted in my daughter’s favorite color!” He said she’d be so excited to get a handmade scarf, and tucked it under his soaking wet jacket (it was in a ziploc bag).
I gave him some money for a sandwich and bought him a hot chocolate before heading into the store to browse. My heart was warmed…I’d knitted the scarf for someone else, but it seemed to have found the perfect owner, one who would love the color and feel the love knitted into it, like it was always meant to be that way.
That day I came home and cast on another scarf. Who knows who this one will someday belong to!
Hi,
This doesn’t really qualify for an entry to the contest, but Canadian Guild of Knitters has what we call Random Acts of Knitting. They come in many forms: When Katrina hit the Gulf States, we sent yarn and needles to a woman’s shelter in Mississippi, as I recall; when we have books that we have reviewed that are surplus to our needs, we send them out in random draws to our members; we try to get some charity knitting done throughout the year; and of course, we’re try to help with knitting questions that are e-mailed to us.
The concept for Random Acts of Knitting stemmed from Random Acts of Kindness, so I thought, since this is a knitting blog, you wouldn’t mind if I shared.
Yours in knitting,
Cynthia
My husband and I do this quite often actually, and I’m now trying to devise ways to pay for other things for people in other places. I bought a 25.00 Walmart gift card today so that I have it on hand if ever I’m at Walmart and notice someone elderly or a flustered mom or anyone that just looks like they could use a little sunshine in thier day. My plan is just to give it to the cashier and tell them to use it to help pay for whatever that person has in their cart that day. Yesterday my husband thinks he had the neatest experience at the McDonalds Drive thru, he paid for the persons behind him which ended up being a bit pricey, we have 4 children and he was getting lunch for himself and them and the other persons bill came to about 25.00 OUCH but God will reward us that 10 fold. The really neat thing though, is my husband said he thinks she then paid for the person behind her because he saw her hand over her credit card anyways. How awesome is that!!! Now I’d best get back to what I was doing that brought me here in the first place. I’m going to have some business cards made up that say “You’ve been blessed with a Random Act of Kindness, Pass it On!” and I was hoping to find a short bible verse to put on it as well. Off I go, glad to see others are out there bringing smiles to people one at a time! Keep it up!
As my husband and I were going out to clear ours and some neighbors drive-ways of snow, our neighbors were coming out to do ours and some other neighbors – so we did it together. We have a snow-blower and he has an ATV w/blade so many driveways and sidewalks were cleared on our little street. Good neighbors are the best.
I made a knitted hat for a young man at the Ronald McDonald House. He is from a warmer climate and does not have a warm hat. It is snowing and cold here and he has to walk back and forth to the hospital severald times each day. He was very surprised when I gave it to him.
As you know by the email you received, recently a young man had all his yarn stolen by a rotten room mate who didnt even knit. When I read about it, I had to try to help out!!!
I went through my stash, and packed up a large box (the shipping was part of the RAK as well-I really stuffed that box!!!heeheehee) of yarn and as the young man was also without full sets of DPNs, I made him a “sock box” (a wooden box to keep all your dpns in order as well as other notions) in his fave color and filled it to brimming with dpns, guage rulers, bobbins, markers, ect. I even insured the box, so if it gets lost he can have a yarn spree instead!!! It felt so good to give to others, and I think it did me as much good as I’m hoping it will do for him!!! As the final touch, I made sure the the box would get to him by this Weds–this way he will have a big box of yarn love to open up for christmas!!!heeheehee Now I’m as anxious as a kid, wishing I could see his face when he opens it!!!
I am so lucky, I just got to do a ‘knitting RAK”. What’s that you may ask? Well, I just left a crazy middle school where I subbed today, and I am just beat down. I stopped off at Joann to get a set of sewing needles to finish off my son’s gloves. In line, as I am rushing in, I hear a younger woman saying ” I thought someone that worked here would knit!” I almost went on by, but turned and helped instead. I am so glad someone appreciated my teaching today. lol. anyway, turns out she had all these scarfs at home, and couldn’t figure out how to cast off. poor thing. She pulled out a long, large gauge needle set with a stranded scarf on it. I pulled out the stitches she needed to fix and stood and showed her over and over how the stitch went. And told her how to finish.
Then I told her about knittinghelp.com and what a tool it has been for me. otherwise, i was driving out to mom’s house for tutorials myself! I had another lady in the knitting aisle wondering aloud to her daughter about the mismatched colors for the kiddie needles. I figure it is to say to the little learners, ‘on the blue needle, or, on the red needle’. instead of left and right needles. So, small yes, but I helped out two more people be further into our world and better for it. I also told them about our local knitting circles ( that I haven’t even gotten to yet!! Maybe, I’ll see them there:) Juliblue
PS.I was also rewarded with my purchase from you waiting for me when I got home- thanks, loopy ewe!!!
Reading these comments has been wonderful and humbling. I’ve been close to tears through a couple of them – and still have a ton to read.
It made me think about how often I feel sorry for myself when there are many, many people less fortunate than I.
It inspired me to do something for a very good friend of mine. She has listened to me when I have needed to talk about my problems despite having many of her own. For the last few weeks she and her children have had bug after bug after bug. Now some of the older kids are getting better while she and the baby are still pretty sick. I have just ordered for her a game/play set that I think will give the older kids a lot of pleasure and hopefully give her a break while she gets better.
As for me – RAK – there have been many over the years… The holidaying policeman who let me use his mobile when I locked my baby in the car, the woman who held my screaming baby when I couldn’t see for my own tears, the drawing pads and crayons sent by a friend when I was sick to occupy my children – I;m sure there have been many, many more.
Thank you so much for making me think about others and not just myself.
OK, I had one today that left me feeling like a super hero!!! Long line, unhappy people, and a young mom in front of me with 2 screaming toddlers. We finally get to the cashier and moms coupons were expired. Mom was scraping change out of her purse while enduring nasty comments, and a sarcastic cashier. She was very close to tears and I could see her mentally trying to figure out which thing to leave behind. I handed over the small bill she was lacking and she was shocked and thrilled. Me? I was walking on air for the rest of the day!!!
After I park at the grocery store I check to see if anyone close is loading their groceries into their car and I wait and take the cart back to the store. Such a little thing but people seem to appreciate not having to walk the cart back.