give more

Met a teacher Friday that really inspired me. She’s a couple of years older than me, and has done so much in her life to really make a difference. I haven’t had a mentor in a while, but I would really love to spend more time in her class and learn more from her. Hopefully I can talk to her again and see if she needs any extra help.

I know that giving and trying to help others, is not going to change the world. I know that sounds counter-intuitive because its said so often that giving will change everything. Not that I don’t want it to change, but I think I just recognize the power that I have and I realize that whether it does or not is not in my control.

So I think its the small things that I can do, that I should focus on.

GIVE UR MIND

at Starbucks today. She had this backpack on wheels, like she just got out of school, and was obviously trying hard to act like an adult. She even made a comment like “man, could this line be any slower??” And then looked around for reaction from others. _{apparently she has impatient parents she’s modeling?} So, she ordered a vanilla creme, and the girl told her it was 3.55… and she clumsily pulled out $2. The line was building behind us, and she began negotiating for her drink saying..” what if I do no whipped cream?” (which is free), so I just handed her $2 and helped her pay. I wasn’t trying to be a good samaritan or anything, just relieve her awkward moment. The barista and I laughed once she walked away, saying “Like who does she belong to??” It was an odd scene, and I don’t know if this really counts as ‘giving more’ but at least I was trying to be more aware of helping someone else.

I watched him at the post office, as I stood patiently waiting for my number to be called. He was almost done being helped and a woman walked up and interrupted the postal worker that was helping him to ask for tape. The worker began to look around, clearly annoyed and he grabbed his roll out of his USPS bin that he had apparently used to send off a good load of mail, and set it on the counter next to the woman. He smiled and said, “I have scissors, envelopes, anything else you need!” and the woman grabbed the tape while barley looking at him and used it, not noticing that it was his personal stash, not the post office’s. She just wanted to finish what she was doing, so unaware of the nice man standing next to her. She pushed the tape back without saying thank you, as if giving it back to the postal worker. He was just upbeat and smiley and so unusually unselfish in the gray and bureaucratic walls that tend to surround the DMV and post office.

I waited for a few minutes more and saw him walk back in carrying a good sized box with an older lady slowly walking behind him, and he said “I’ll put it right up here on the counter, and there’s a seat you can sit down on the bench there”, pointing to the bench right behind me. He must have been walking out the door, after finishing his business and then saw the lady struggling with the big box. And then kindly found a seat for her. This stranger had a more giving and upbeat spirit than most people have in a year. He did two small acts of kindness, without expecting anything in return, and by simply being aware of the people around him instead of his own agenda. He really made an impact on me in watching his behavior for only a few short minutes, and I want to be that unselfish and giving on a constant basis and have it come across as easily as he made it look.

I know money is tight but if I can’t give money at least I need to start giving more time. MOney always seems to be the easiest thing to give but this year I want to give my time my ability to help others all year around.

So I think I should be a bit more generous, not with material things but with actions.
I should smile more to people on the street, and spend more time with my family, call my friends (give them attention), lend things if someone needs…

I really want to give more time to people. To be able to talk or chat to anyone without looking at my watch at all!

I just found out about a really cool website designed for teachers in need of classroom materials. The way the site works is a teacher will post a proposal on the site, and “donors” searching the site can give tax-deductible donations as little as $1 to the proposals of their choice. Proposals can really be anything, from pencils to a classroom computer. The main requirement is that the items requested directly benefit the students.

I have posted two proposals:

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=201316

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=201544

Personally, I am so excited a site like this exists for teachers. As it gets closer to September and I am shopping back to school supply sales I am reminded again of how quickly the small things add up and how unattainable some of the big things seem.

So, why am I posting this here for all of you to see? Well, maybe you were, are, know, or will be a teacher and could benefit from this site yourself. Or, maybe maybe you feel like helping out someone with a lot of good ideas, but not a lot of funds.

More than ever do i want to beable to help out others and give people what they deserve who could never beable to do that on their own. I have it good and have always had what i wanted. I just want to make others smile