Kindness Challenge (wk5) and CTST: Grateful for kindness
Celebrating the Small Things: For the first time in 43 years, I can see 20/20 without glasses, contacts or reading glasses. I had cataract and cornea reshaping surgery last week and it’s truly amazing what the doctors can accomplish!
During this seven-week Kindness Challenge, I’ve become more aware of the large and small kindnesses in my life. Here are a few that I’m especially grateful for, and none of them require money.
1. Marriage
My husband is one of the kindness people I know. He was a struggling college student when I met him, getting his master’s degree in Denver, and yet he always found ways to help people around him. One night he was late picking me because he stopped to help a person with their car outside an auto parts store. The man was Russian and spoke very little English. Joe was able to figure out what was wrong with his car and helped him buy the right part and install it. He lives out the adage that “actions speak louder than words.” I was 33 and used to living on my own when we met. It was hard at first to let him do things for me because I was so used to doing things for myself. I began not only appreciating his many gifts and talents (the man can fix anything with the right tools and time), but I learned that many things that we can do for others don’t necessarily involve money. Many times it’s spending time with a person and listening to them. Even though we’ve known each other for 21 years (and been married for 16 years this July), I still cherish the time we spend together.
2. Friendship
I’ve been especially blessed with good friends. It seems that God provides the exact people in my life when I most need them. If I need to laugh, there is a friend or two who can make my stomach ache and eyes leak with joy! If I need a listening ear (or ears as they usually come in pairs), those same friends are present and accounted for. Good friends are like sparkling jewels – truly to be treasured. And, like ice cream and cookies, they are some of my favorite things. I only hope to be as good a friend to these special people, in their time of need.
3. God’s angels in unlikely places
I believe that God provides strangers in our everyday lives, as messengers of His kindness to us. It can be a woman at the grocery store who offered me a recipe for asparagus, because she could tell by my face that the vegetable scared me. It can be five different people gassing up their cars after a long day at work who stop to help me and my friend rescue a kitten from under the wooden palettes. It can be the policeman who gives me a warning for turning the wrong way down a one-way street, because I was new in town. It can be the nurse who calms my nerves right before going in for cataract removal surgery.
What or who are you grateful for? What unexpected kindnesses have been true blessings in your life?
dmweiden@gmail.com
I'm Diane, a marketing executive in the non-profit sector living in Terre Haute, Indiana. My husband and I moved from Denver, Colorado, 15-plus years ago and this blog highlights our joys and challenges in adjusting to our new home and town. I also share things I love: photography, wildlife and domestic pets, writing, knitting, making jewelry, food, travel, my faith in God and music. I'm also writing a mystery novel so stay tuned!
15 Comments
Bernadette
A wonderful gratitude post. You have definitely recognized what is most important in life.
dmweiden@gmail.com
Just saw your comment – it ended up in “spam” for some reason. Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting. Have a great week!
Tonja Drecker
How lovely it must be to see so clearly again! That’s worth a huge celebration. As are the other things. Lovely post 🙂
dmweiden@gmail.com
Thanks, Tonja. Hope you’re having a good week.
lexacain
Congratulations on the successful cataract surgery! That’s wonderful news! I love how you appreciate your husband and your friends and even kind strangers. It’s a blessing to be able to see the good in people. Asparagus scares me too! I made some once, just boiled them, and the tips came out okay, but the rest came out stringy and fibrous. Ugh. Not worth the effort, considering how expensive they are. Guess I’m just a lover of simple food. 😉
dmweiden@gmail.com
So glad someone else feels the way I do toward asparagus. It’s taste is too strong or bitter and you’re right, the texture is icky. Thank you for your comments – I appreciate it!
Patricia
It is the people in our lives not the things that make life such a wonder. It is obvious that you know this.
dmweiden@gmail.com
Thanks for the visit, Patricia! Hope you have a good week!
Jeffrey H. King
Ah, the best things in life ARE free!
dmweiden@gmail.com
I agree. Thanks for visiting!
Quirky Girl
I love the part about angels. I do wholeheartedly believe that there are angels on earth, and you never know when you’ll be fortunate enough to encounter an angel in disguise. 🙂
dmweiden@gmail.com
Isn’t that the truth about angels?! They come in many forms. Have a great week and thanks for visiting!
Quirky Girl
Thanks! You too! 🙂
forgivingjournal
I love that you are doing a 7 week kindness challenge. 🙂 Found you via your comment on my blog … via A Kinder Way. (How perfect is that?) I’m grateful too for the angels that God brings into my life. One of my intentions is to trust God as my partner and a big part of that is recognizing the gifts that come my way. You are great. Blessings.
dmweiden@gmail.com
Trust is hard for me sometimes, with God, because I feel like I should be able to do most things under my own steam (prideful, I guess). God has other plans for me sometimes (and a good sense of humor)! Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you have a good week!