A Window Into Kindness

So every other Wednesday a lady, Sophia, comes and cleans our apartment (one of the many perks of living in my in-laws condo unit!). I can not really communicate with her because she speaks Polish with only a few words of English (thank you, yes, okay, etc). Sammy is a little afraid of her and will usually get close then run away back to Christy or I. Elizabeth likes to peer in at her from the door frame and watch what she is doing. Even though we can not communicate, you can tell she is such a sweet lady. Every time she cleans Elizabeth's room she will make her bed (something we don't even do as she just has two blankets) and will arrange all of her stuffed animals in a row. I've also seen her cleaning the kids bibs if they happen to be in the sink. Those things are clearly not in her job description, but are little acts of kindness she does simply because she loves children.

I remember thinking weeks ago that Christy and I should buy her some type of gift with a nice card as small token of our appreciation beyond just the money she gets - but as usual - I totally forgot. This last week when she was cleaning, I put together a bag of oranges and grapefruits that we had sitting around (Christy's parents had bought us a big box from the rotary club) for her to take home...way to go me. Problem solved. I'm such an innovator. She said thank you very kindly. When she was leaving that day, she motioned us over and proceeded to bring out of a large bag toys for the kids, Polish candies for all of us and a very nice card. Everything was in Polish but given the Halo around two people over a manager on the card - I'm pretty sure it was for Christmas. First of all, how cool is that? Second, its such a reminder to me that you can be the nicest person in the world but if you do not move from 'nice ideas' or 'warm thoughts' to action - what good is it? I find that this is constantly true of me - I'm the king of great ideas with no action - and here is an example again with someone I hardly know and can not even talk to showing me what true actionable kindness looks like. I need to continue to work to push myself beyond thinking 'It would be great to...' and actually do it.

So this weekend my parents were in town - and I was able to put them to work as soon as they got here. My dad watched Lizzy and Sammy while my mom, Christy and I had a cookie making evening. We probably made 120+ cookies that we were planning on delivering and/or mailing to several people. One such cookie package was sent to my friend Dave down in Florida. He wrote me a note to say thank-you, and also to show me the state of package when it got there. So clearly, most normal people sending cookie tins will put them in a box - however - most normal people are not quite as lazy as I am. At the post office I saw large padded envelopes and thought, 'This is a great idea - the tins will be fine in there...' Well, if you look at the picture on the left you can see that is clearly not the case. As good as the hole by the return address and the packaging tape over the other hole in the upper right is - my favorite part is the big 'Fragile' stamped on the front. Can you imagine what would have happened if THAT wasn't there? Yikes....

Anyway, I hope the holiday shopping is not getting the best of everyone and you are enjoying the snowy (in Chicago) and cold (also in Chicago - I miss warm temperatures) days before Christmas. Make sure you keep the economy going...shop early and shop often.

Until next time...