giving – Cairn by Cairn

Anonymous Bliss

Christmas time brings out the best in humanity as everyone seems a little more concerned about taking care of their fellow man. Some folks give with big showy displays, but the best and most meaningful gifts are those given anonymously and symbolically to help those less fortunate. A quick spin around the web this week, revealed anonymous givers whose gifts have inspired others to give to those less fortunate.

Mysterious Pete has become a legend to the staff at the Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center in Evansville, IN. Every year around Christmas he hides a donation somewhere on the property and then phones the staff with a hint as to where to find his gift. This year’s gift was a miniature Christmas tree with 30 $100 bills attached. Over the years Pete’s given over $65,000 to the center and although the staff has garnered a few clues about who he might be, they prefer to let his identity remain a mystery so as not the thrill he gets out of giving anonymously.

The tradition of gold coins being dropped anonymously in Chicago Salvation Army buckets continued this year when holiday workers found gold coins worth $1,200 wrapped inside bills and dropped inside the red buckets. The tradition of someone dropping gold coins into Salvation Army buckets in the Chicago area dates back to 1982 and the coins have included Kugerrands and other golden coins. The tradition has spread to other areas and this year gold coins have been dropped in buckets in Philadelphia, Indiana, and Florida.

In another story, an anonymous woman showed up at a Salvation Army and started handing out $20 bills to people who were waiting in line for food vouchers. When she ran out of cash, she went to the ATM to get more money to hand out. Although this lady gave in person and ran the risk of not being so anonymous, she meets the criteria because she was giving from the heart and refused to tell anyone who she was.

Interestingly enough, there was an excellent article at the TriValley Dispatch about Secret Santas and how their anonyomous gifts add to the mystery of the season. Giving should be about the joy of seeing someone’s face light up and not about the glory that comes with giving big gifts. Take some time this year and see if you can’t make someone’s burden a little bit lighter by being their Secret Santa. I promise that if you do, you’ll experience amazing bliss.

29 Days of Giving Bliss?

I finished the 29 days of giving challenge back on November 1 and I promised that I’d right a recap about whether or not I felt it had changed my life. I’ve been pondering that question for over a month mainly because every time I thought about it, I reached the conclusion that it hadn’t changed my life and that I really didn’t see what all the hoopla was about. I kept telling myself that that must be wrong because everyone was excited about this and the author got a book published and everything so there must be something to it. However, no matter how many times I turned the question around in my head, I still reached the conclusion that the 29 days of giving had had at best a minimal impact on my life.

The big question was why did I feel it had a minimal impact on my life and that’s the question I’ve really been pondering over a month. I guess the real reason I felt it had minimal impact was because all of the things on the list are things that I would have done anyway. I always try to make the world a little bit better and to do nice things for those around me. The 29 Day challenge didn’t make me give my daughter money for homecoming, I would have done that anyway. Taking the dog for a walk had more to do with my desire for fitness than anything else and I always let someone go in front of me in line if I the person only has one or two items and I have a handful.

The next question was did my consciously noticing and recording the things I’d given and sharing them with the 29 days community make a change in my life and if anything I think that had a negative impact on my life because I felt like I was bragging about doing the right thing. I didn’t need praise or recognition for the gifts and kindness I was sharing because I knew in my heart I’d done the right thing and that meant more than sharing them on a list with others.

As I was trolling through the Internet to get ideas for how to sum this up, I came across several random acts of kindness sites where people recount how kindnesses done by loved ones or strangers have changed their lives. To me it was much more meaningful to read stories from people who recognized the gifts given to them and how those gifts changed their lives.

My life has changed tremendously since I’ve started this blog as I’m consciously looking for the good things in life and recognizing those has led me to a more consistent state of bliss. Life still isn’t perfect, but recognizing the gifts of bliss in my life seems to in a weird sort of way lead to more gifts of bliss in my life.

Twenty Nine Days of Blissful Giving

I stumbled across the site 29 Days of Giving and as I was reading the stories about how giving could change your life and make you think about others instead of yourself. I decided that I’d participate and reflect on whether or not the 29 Days of giving changed my life. My list of 29 gifts is below and I’ll write a seperate post to about the impact the 29 Days of Giving had on my life.

Day 1 (10/4)–I made homemade beef stew and homemade chicken soup and boxed some of it up for my son Sean to take back to college with him. It made me feel good to know that even though he’s away at school, he would still be enjoying Mom’s home cooking.

Day 2 (10/5)–As I was getting into the elevator this morning, another lady got on with a beautiful green and blue blouse on. I complimented her on her blouse and although she did the typical, “This old thing” denial, I could tell she was pleased by the compliment as she got off the elevator with a smile on her face.

Day 3 (10/6)–It is three days before payday and hubby is out of cigarettes. I scrounged up (okay) borrowed some money and went out and got him cigarettes. I’m not sure this really counts as a good deed or not as smoking isn’t good for him, but it was something that he wanted and I went and took care of it for him. I also got the dog ice cream on my way back.

Day 4 (10/7)–I took my dog for a walk today. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but although my dog loves to walk, he is the worst walker in the world and it is a huge chore to walk with him. I know that the more time I spend walking with him the better, but it feels like a battle royal every time I take him. It was worth it to see how happy he gets.

Day 5 (10/8)–My son came home from college (downtown Chicago) to get some books and I drove him back to school rather than make him take the train. It was actually nice as we got a chance to talk about life, school, and a bunch of other things.

Day 6 (10/9)–I bought cinnamon bread at the bakery my daughter works at and took it in for the folks at work. This was a twofer as I was helping out a local business that has been very good to my daughter and I was making the people at work happy.

Day 8 (10/10)–Caitlin is a very independent young lady and since she has gotten a job, she’s been very good about paying for her own extras like haircuts, dances, etc. Her homecoming dance was this weekend and decided to treat her to a haircut and to the ticket to the dance. It felt good to know that she was going to have a little extra money to spend on something else she wanted and I made sure she knew that I did appreciate her taking care of the little things.

Day 9 (10/11)–I gave myself the gift of reading brain candy for a few hours. I’ve been working really hard at getting my book put together, my site set up, and everything else so I decided to take a few hours off and escape to another reality.

Day 10 (10/12)–I took time to help out a coworker who was trying to dial into a remote training session. It wasn’t my training session, but since I was at HQ and she was in Chattanooga, I was able to get to someone who could help her.

Day 11 (10/13)–I held the door for a lady who was maneuvering a big stroller out a small door. That’s a really little thing, but I know from when I had kids that it is a little thing that can mean a whole lot.
Day 12 (10/14)–I wrote a blog entry about what a great mom my mother was and took the time to dig through our photo albums to find photos of her pre-child so that she knew I recognized her as a person and not just an extension of her family.
Day 13 (10/15)–I blogged about ways to save the planet and how my family and I are green. This is a way to share my knowledge with other people and hopefully will inspire other people to do their part to save our world.
Day 14 (10/16)–A friend of mine asked me to do some shopping at our corporate merchandise sale today so I took care of getting her things and getting them shipped to her.
Day 15 (10/17) –I let a lady go in front of me at the dollar store She walked up and had her arms full of goodies. I know what it’s like to go to the store for one or two things and end up walking out with an armful of stuff. She was genuily appreciative and thanked me several times.
Day 16 (10/18)–I let the dog eat the leftover roast beef. He’d been so patient waiting for us to eat it and sniffing around that I decided he deserved a treat so I gave him what was left of the meat and potatoes. I also took myself and the dog for a walk tonight even though I was exhausted and really just wanted to go to sleep.
Day 17 (10/19)–I bought Cat coffee and a breakfast sandwich this morning even though I’m broke until payday AND she hasn’t cleaned the upstairs hallway like I’ve been asking (read begging) her to for weeks. I was rewarded by a candid conversation about lies one of her “friends” has been telling her.
Day 18 (10/20)–I went to the chiropractor and got my back cracked and my muscles massaged. I’m trying very hard to get in shape and to actually take care of my body. This one counts as something I did for me.
Day 19 (10/21)– One of my best friends is going through some tough times and I spent some time writing a blog entry about how much he means to me and how much he’s helped me through the years.
Day 20 (10/22)–I pulled together training for one of my friends because he was scrambling to get it done in time to meet his deadline and he didn’t have anyone to do it. I spent a couple of hours doing the research and developing the training for him. I also did some dat a dumps from SAP to facilitate a project he was working on.
Day 21 (10/23)– I found this really cool recipe to make Batman Soap online and I made Batman soap for my Batfiend and, as a bonus, I made my mother some really awesome body butter.
Day 22 (10/24)–Someone I knew was in the line at the grocery store and didn’t have enough to cover her charges so I rushed forward, whipped out my ATM card, and felt like Wonder Woman as I rescued her. She offered to pay me back, but I turned her down because the awesome feeling I got from helping her out felt way better than getting my money back.
Day 23 (10/25)–I let Caitlin drive home from work. She just got her learner’s permit and she hasn’t yet driven with her instructor yet, so I’m still nervous about letting her drive. However, today I took the plunge and let her drive. She did very well and I’m sure that as she gets more confident she will do even better.
Day 24 (10/26)–I took John to the doctor this afternoon and filled all the forms out for him because he hurt his left hand so he couldn’t write.
Day 25 (10/27)–I took Luke for a walk tonight. It is amazing how much he loves to go for a walk and how excited he gets by the simple things in life.
Day 26 (10/28)–I went to my chiropractor tonight and let myself relax and enjoy the manipulation and the heat that went on my back. It felt really good to just lay there and let the heat and stim do their job on my back. This was a way of giving back something good to myself. When i as at the chiropractor’s, I noticed that one of the nurses had on a beautiful set of scrubs with lace embroidery on them. As we talked, she said that she’d bought the one set and hadn’t been able to find another pair. Someone suggested looking on line and she said she hadn’t had time. I took the time to search online and send her some links as to where she might be able to find them online.
Day 27 (10/29)–I went out with some people from work tonight and when I was done, I came home and made Jambalaya for our food fest tomorrow. This was an act of giving of myself to those I work with as I thought about how nice it would be to build a sense of community with my team mates.
Day 28 (10/30)–Every Halloween my family reads the “Dead List” to pay tribute to those who have gone before. Part of our tradition is remembering people from the past who have influenced us or touched our lives in some way. The people we remember are often people who had no voice when they were alive and who were the victims of genocide, violence, or intolerance. By remembering them, we remember their lives and pay tribute to their sacrifice. We also teach each other a lesson by promising to do what we can to stop intolerance and violence in our world.
Day 29 (10/31)–The last day was the absolute easiest of the giving challenge because it was Halloween so we were giving out candy to children all evening long.