Hello all!

I’m delighted to report that I made my first gift as a bona fide elf today! I woke knowing the day was going to be extra-special because of the gift I planned to make.

I completed my usual morning routines with a sense of happy excitement. As I drove into the parking lot of my local YWCA (for some quick cardio), I parked in a space where a little girl (maybe 6?) was waiting outside her car as her mom extracted her baby out of his car seat from the other side.

I gave the girl a big smile as I parked and then turned away to gather my things. All of a sudden my door was opened and I looked over and it was the girl saying “I’ll open the door for you!” I thanked her profusely and the mom then looked up and I said, “You daughter kindly opened the door for me.”

The girl beamed and repeated, “I opened the door for the lady, mama!” The mom looked a little preoccupied with her baby and didn’t really acknowledge the girl, but I thanked her again. There were two more doors to get through until we were in to the building and guess who opened them for me?

I have never been the recipient of such kindness from a little stranger and I took it as a great sign that today was, indeed, going to be very special with lots of evidence of kindness and good will.

The funny thing is that I didn’t feel moved to give the gift card to anyone in Barnes and Noble (if you’re reading my story for the first time, the idea was that I was going to give a $10 B&N gift card to someone at Barnes and Noble today). There were some lovely people, but either my hesitation or their plans to move along more quickly precluded me extending the gift there.

The store, however, is adjacent to a mall and it has a large kid’s play area and my son expressed a wish to go there, so we did. When we got there there were dozens of kids because some schools were canceled because of snow today.

My son ran around a bit but then came back to me and said , “I wish I had a friend here.” I asked him if he’d like to make friends with some of the kids at the play area and I was just then making eye contact with a boy a little older than my son (my son adores older boys) and it turns out that he heard me and said, “I can be his friend! I’m Samuel. And I can get my other friend, too!” My son was delighted to be included in their big boy games (some very daring jumps and flips off the play structures) and they played happily for over 30 minutes.

When the boys had to go I knew I wanted to give Samuel the card for his extraordinary kindness to my son. So as they were gathering up their stuff I went to their table and briefly told their caregiver how much Samuel’s kindness had meant to us and we wanted to celebrate it with a little token of our gratitude.

They all looked at me rather quizzically and my son and I went back to playing in the play area. A couple of minutes later the boys both came running up and, with big smiles on their faces, said “Thank you!” and then when the caregiver walked by she said, “That’s so cool! Thanks!”

Again, there were many examples of kindness that delighted me all day – and I wish I had had 10 gift cards, not just the one!

What I love most about this experience is that it is so clearly reaffirms my belief that in looking for something – whatever it is – we find it.