Monday, June 10, 2013

Kindness, Week Twenty Three

Here are this week's acts of kindness!

June 4- Prayed for a patron. On this day, a girl about my age, maybe a little younger, came into the library. I asked her if she needed help, and she very nervously asked if we were hiring. Really, she seemed super friendly but very anxious about speaking, like she stumbled over her words when she first spoke, and I swear her chin was quivering like she was going to cry. I told her that no, we weren't right now, but all library jobs are posted on the city's website. I also told her that it takes a long time to get into the library jobs, because hey, it's government. I said something funny to try to make her laugh, and told her good luck in her search. After she left, when I took my break, I prayed for her. The fact that she seemed so nervous really struck me, so I asked God to help her with whatever's going on, and to help her find a job soon. I hope that my joke-y attitude and advice about the job search made her feel a little better.

June 5- Graded papers. On the 4th, during Bible study, my friend Leah shared with us how stressed she was because she had so much to do for the end of the school year, including finishing grading some final exams before Thursday morning. I offered to help her out- I love grading! I have been grading papers and tests since 4th grade, when my teacher would let me help out with grading. So that night, Leah emailed me a few classes worth of essays, and that's how I spent my Wednesday. She met me at the library that night and worked on her grading there, and I brought her the rubrics I had filled out with the students grades on them. I know she appreciated the help, and I had a lot of fun!

June 6- Ordered a CD. My husband is not really supportive of frivolous purchases, unless they are something on his Amazon wishlist. He usually just gets presents two times a year, for his birthday and Christmas. The only things he buys for himself any other time are Star Wars books, and usually they go on the wish list, too. I found some of the CDs he recently said he wanted for a much lower price on my beloved Half.com, and I ordered one for him. I have a fun time finding good prices and online shopping, he gets something he wanted, everybody wins. Plus, the CDs he wanted were worship CDs, and I'm happy with that!

June 7- Volunteered my time. Another person I know who is just absolutely swamped with work right now is my friend Jess. It's summer reading time at the library, and she has much more to do than usual. I thought she seemed a little grumpy when we worked together on Friday, and she pretty much just stayed on her side of the desk, working away. I have asked her several times lately if there's anything I can do to ease her burden, and she always says no. This afternoon, she was cutting out like 80 lion-shaped paper masks. I pretty much demanded that she let me help her, and I cut out lions until my shoulders hurt too much to do it anymore. Basically I think I saved her about 20 minutes (even though it was about an hour's work for me), but hey, every little bit counts, right?

June 8- Pledged a donation. My friend Briana is pursuing an international adoption, and she has been doing some fundraisers for it lately. I have been pouring all my extra cash into another friend's adoption fundraisers, since she is about to bring her little boy home, but I did promise Briana I would help her out eventually! Briana announced that she would be having a yard sale in August to raise funds for their adoption. I have some stuff I can give her, both from myself and also some stuff from our Bible study group that I can't really find other homes for. So I sent her a message and told her I would be happy to give her some stuff to sell! I'm praying she has a really successful sale when the time comes.

June 9- Made friendship cards. We had some heavy discussion in this past week's Bible study meeting, and I wanted to write notes to my study-mates who were there that night to tell them that I really value their friendship. So on this day, I settled down with a pack of notecards and did just that. I will hand them out on Tuesday.

June 10- Gave a dollar. I had another one of those opportunities to take a dollar donation onto my bill today- you know how I love that! I got my driver's license renewed today, and the clerk asked me if I wanted to give a dollar to "the organ people." I said yes, as I am inclined to do. I registered to be an organ donor in an earlier act of kindness a few months ago, but this was a little different, as the donations will be kept here locally. And I'm happy to say that almost everybody else in the clerk's office that day chose to donate a dollar with their transactions, too!


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