The good in the world

As we all know all too well right now, life can feel pretty heavy these days. Jason and I, for some reason, have been protected from hard hits as of yet, but too many people we know are REALLY struggling and sometimes, things look so gloomy and dismal. And yet, in the midst of all this, I have been struck by the good in the world. Perhaps all the hardships have created a backdrop where these things stand out, but whatever the reason, I wanted to share a few things that have jumped out at me and warmed my heart this week. First, I read this article on the drudge report. Pretty amazing!

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/st ory/904842.html

The other two things are small, but sometimes it's the small things that impact us the most. I've been waiting for our local Gottschalks to run Clinique's bonus. For those of you who don't know what that means, a couple times a year, Clinique, the makeup company that I buy from, runs a promotion where you get a bunch of free stuff (lipstick, mascara, eye shadow, etc.) when you buy a certain amount. It started today and I've been stretching my makeup until then so that I could get the free stuff. I went in today and all I needed was the foundation (I only buy two things from Clinique. The rest I get somewhere cheap, if at all). The minimum purchase to receive the bonus was $21.50. My foundation came to $20.50, of course. The sales associate tells me that with tax, it will be over $21.50 so she'll give it to me, even though technically she's not supposed to. THANK YOU! She didn't have to do that, but she did out of the kindness of her heart and I was really grateful. Then Gabby and I went to play in the kids area. Gabby had to use the restroom and on the way out, I asked Gabby if she wanted to share a soda. We couldn't agree on a flavor, so we decided to just not get anything. An older gentleman was walking by with his walker and dropped a whole bunch of quarters. I picked them up for him. Then he asked if Gabby wanted a soda. I told him that she was ok, that she has had a lot of junk food lately anyway. He asked how much the sodas were and I told him $1.25 as we started to walk away. He called after us: "I have a couple dollars. Do you want a soda little girl?" For some reason, that brings tears to my eyes as I type because this man didn't even know us. He had no idea whether we "deserved" a soda, or whether we were down on our luck, or anything. He just wanted to be nice. Now I'm dying to do the same for someone else. See, it's so easy to make someone smile. To warm their hearts and make their day and yet, how often do we do things like that? Gabby probably won't even drink her soda. She doesn't really care for pop all that much because it's "too spicy", but the selfless act of that older gentleman is something I definitely won't forget for awhile.