A Touch of Kindness Goes a Long Way

Operation Spread Hope, Love & Joy, Part III

“A little spark of kindness can put a colossal burst of sunshine in someone’s day. Be the reason someone smiles today.“

Point to Ponder:
Have you ever considered your daily goal being to make someone smile?

by Neissa Brown Springmann

Like many little boys, when my four year old son Durant was a toddler he loved trash trucks. Thursday was our trash pick-up day so that was a huge deal! As soon as I heard the trash truck roaring down the street my husband or I would scoop him up and we’d rush out of the house to catch a glimpse and give a wave. He loved trash trucks so much that I would follow them around neighborhoods. During one of my “I’ll do anything to entertain my toddler”/ “trash truck stalking” moments, I was following a trash truck so close that the sweet garbage man got out of his truck to wave me around him. I let him know that I had a little boy in the car who loved trash trucks. He then invited us into his truck and let Durant push buttons and steer the wheel. Like the quote says, the little spark of kindness from the garbage man put a colossal burst of sunshine in both of our days! I will forever be grateful for all of the sweet garbage men who honked their horns, gave us waves and let us check out their powerful machines.

Before having my endearing garbage man experience which led to a sincere appreciation for this group, my angelic grandmother showed me how important it was to be kind and generous to people who have “thankless jobs”, like a garbage man.

My grandmother, ‘Mama Doris’, might have been the most kind and wonderful person I have ever known. If being too kind is possible, she fell in that category because she nurtured and cared for everyone except herself. In addition to doing anything for anyone and being an amazing grandmother, a few examples of her kindness were that she would regularly bake the mailman and garbage man her homemade apple and butter pies, and she would scramble eggs for stray cats! She was always spreading hope, love and joy and I have no doubt that she is in heaven continuing to bake and cook for everyone.

In consideration of this week being our third week of Operation Spread Hope, Love and Joy, my encouragement for you is to continue to be intentional with spreading hope, love and joy by doing something kind for men and/or women who perform “thankless jobs”. Just a few examples of thankless jobs are garbage, mail and delivery services, construction, etc.

Finally, due to travel back to Austin for the holidays we will miss this week’s trash day, so last week I left a Merry Christmas note with goodie gift bag for our trash men. I don’t know about you, but our pantry is never lacking treats, especially during the holiday season, so it was a cinch to find goodies to fill the bag. And, it felt really good to create and leave a gift bag for our garbage men and upon doing so I had no expectation. However, that evening while pulling the garbage cans back into the garage I found a hand-written thank you note from Jaime V, one of the garbage men (see below). I was floored!

While last Tuesday was a great day, Jaime V’s note was the highlight of that day and it continues to make me smile. In fact, I’m keeping it in my day planner as a reminder of not only how truly gratifying it is to give, but how upligting it feels to receive an unexpected thank you.