Day Six in Review

Prayer: Yes, while compulsively making beds this morning.

Scripture: Yes

Silence: Not much

The Deed/The Day:

It was an easy day of deeding today because it had all been planned months ahead of time. Today was the big Solace for the Children luncheon fundraiser. Does that count? Do I get to check it off as a deed if it was on my calendar and to-do list? I'll take it, no matter what anyone thinks. What a perfectly beautiful day of seeing old friends and celebrating love, peace and God's hands at work. 

A childhood friend's mother was in town visiting yesterday and today. She's a busy lady, and brought some projects with her. Second-Mom-to-Me loves to actually go to the post office to put something in the mail. I am not a Post Office fan. I find the Post Office to be bland, boring — kind of dirty. I prefer the UPS/Fed Ex store where there are more colorful diversions. But SMTM likes the Post Office, so off we went. How refreshing to have a new perspective of the Post Office now that I have my "deed-dar" up. It was a much different experience, with potential deeding opportunities lurking around every corner! The post office, it — delivers. I held the door for a woman carrying several boxes inside and attempted to pick up a fly-away paper for an old man who fumbling with his cane. It was deed Shangri La! I highly suggest it.

Words of Encouragement/Advice:

Anyone ever read The Happiness Project? It's a book about a mother's quest to find happiness. Friend-Who's-Full-of-Good-Info let me borrow her copy and I'm just getting into it. On the author's web page, she posted some suggestions of easy good deeds:

"Often, the nicest gift isn’t something that can be purchased. We don’t always have time to perform a heroic act of thoughtfulness, but even quick good deeds can make a difference. Appling the tips below, I’ve been astonished by the huge benefits that have sometimes flowed from pretty minimal efforts on my part.

Key concepts to bear in mind as you do an easy good deed: imagination andfollow-through:

1. Birthdays. This is so easy. Gather the dates of important birthdays, enter them into one of the internet reminder sites (I use Happybirthday.com), and send happy-birthday emails throughout the year. Super-bonus: two friends sent me emails yesterday for the Little Girl’s birthday—I was so touched.

2. Thinking of you. I’m working hard to send an email every time I think, “I wonder if So-and-So saw this article about broccoli” or “This reminds me of the time in college when So-and-So and I went shopping during a hurricane,” etc. It’s so nice to know that people are thinking of you.

3. Help people think big. Nothing is more encouraging than a friend throwing out some huge goal and saying, “You should do that!” “You should write a book, you should start your own firm, you should run for office, you should join the Council on Foreign Relations.” You never know, sometimes one encouraging comment can have extraordinary effect on someone’s life.

4. Recommendations. If you know of a terrific ____, tell your friends. Mention that you have a great source for some service or product, and remember to follow up with the referral information if asked. This seems too easy to qualify as a good deed, but a recommendation can be a huge help.

5. Introductions. For doing business, for blind dates, for people moving to a new city—making introductions can make someone’s life a lot easier. Connecting people is an extremely helpful good deed, so it’s worth a bit of thinking and prodding to make it happen.

Doing these quick good deeds doesn’t just benefit others. Over and over, I marvel that the one who benefits most—in boosted spirits—is me. Do good, feel good. It really works."

Final Thoughts

Write an old friend a letter today — and mail it at the post office for a double-hitter.