fun with strangers

so, i'm sorry i haven't posted in a while but it seems that i'm not so much a multi-tasker. not really a news flash to me, but some of you may not have known that about me. but rest assured, i am still doing my little acts of kindness. last week, i did a lot of note writing. i found that after spending a small fortune at the grocery store on the sandwich debacle, i may need to find a way to love my neighbor without putting my family in the poor house. so i've been writing notes. really just notes to friends and family. i think i like it b/c i'm not very good at affirming people verbally. i'm much better on paper (or a cute notecard from anthropologie...their home section makes me happy). i'm sort of a thoughtless person when it comes to that. it's not that i don't think nice things about people; it just doesn't really dawn on me to tell them. i wish i were better at it b/c who doesn't love a word of encouragement every now and then. for example, i know it would make my day if someone told me, "you can't even see your muffin top in that shirt!" well, maybe not. anyway, so i've written some notes for some people in my life; just telling them how they've encouraged me in my journey.

but i have to say, my favorite acts have been to strangers. i think it's b/c i'm a person that loves to be surprised. so, instead of being the surprisee, i got to be the surpriser. if you have not done this, it's really fun. i went and got ice cream last weekend by myself and a mother and son walked in. immediately, i got nervous. i knew i wanted to buy their ice cream but i was getting kind of embarrassed about asking if i could. and for those of you who don't know, i flush very easily so it's not hard to tell when i'm nervous. so as the mom was getting out her wallet to pay i just asked if it would be ok if i bought their ice cream. she, then, proceeded to look at me like i was definitely from outer space. she was quite baffled at why i would want to do that. i told her i just really wanted to. so she let me and was very gracious about it, as was her son. then she told me, "i guess people are right about the south, they are nice here". then she told me her family had just moved from wisconsin. and i thought, well God, you just always seem to know what you're doing don't you? it always amazes me how God knows exactly what we need when we need it. another fun thing was buying coffe for the person behind me in the drive thru at starbucks. someone did it for me not long ago and it totally made my day! why are we so surprised when people are nice? i know i am. when someone i don't know does something nice for me, i'm always shocked, like truly shocked. this is not how it should be friends. it's so easy for me to get caught up in my bubble and not notice the people around me. and i can get the attitude of "i take care of my business, you should take care of yours". i'm pretty sure this is not a "love thy neighbor" attitude. so, friends, i encourage you to be a good neighbor and shock someone today!