Be Blessed and be a blessing....A RAOK challenge

[HorseFeathers]

Funny, I was just thinking about doing this! So in the supermarket I told the bagger girl that I loved her hair- it was in these thousands of miniscule, tight, tight curls. She smiled so wide!

I'm definitely in.

 

[Whispering Winds]

And, its soooooo easy. Just one kind word and people will fall all over themselves to do a little special thing. Haven't you noticed when you go to school, how your kids class will just hover around to hear you speak to them? I know this is a nation starved for kind words. My DS has little boys BEGGING to come to our house for the week-end, so they can play and just have fun and be talked nice too. I know most of them come from good people, but I also know that we tend to take for granted who we have for precious family members and may not speak as kindly and frequently as we should to them.

I try to keep an arch card or two for $5 in my car and when I see a homeless person (and they are getting more and more noticeable, and this weather just worries me about where they go at night!), I pass one out to them. I do a lot of good things I don't talk about, but once in awhile its a healthy thing to pay yourself on the back. If we don't like and believe in ourselves, the rest isn't much good. But on the other hand, I have an alpaca friend who has been so good to me, I almost cry when I think about her and her goodness, so I have been blessed for knowing her.

 

[3goodeggs]

A lot of people are feeling that the world is full of strangers. The more people in it, the stranger it gets.

We are behind T.V's and computer screens. We will talk to people without faces, but we do not make eye contact with spouses when they come home from work. What are we conditioning our children to be like?
Stranger danger is good, but then everyone is a stranger forever.

We are in our heated and air conditioned homes.
Front porches are no longer places to wave at neighbors from. Houses now do not even have porches.
When I was a kid, you waved at every car that passed. There were not that many back then. (And I am not all that old yet.)
Maybe some of the fear and hatred in the world could be doused down a bit with a sincere "Hi, how are you?", " You look nice today.", "Good job. I really appreciate the effort you went to."

Here's hoping!

 

[bargain]

Goodness, I just realized another reason I really like Christmas in addition to the very important religious meaning it has to our family.......

It is the time of the year I feel most liberated to speak to strangers, to smile and look them in the eyes and Say Merry Christmas.....or Happy New Year....

I really need to be about this kind of happiness and joy of life sharing year round more and not just with my family and friends "network".... I'm not bashful, those of you on the board know it, but I can be a bit reserved!

So if you all will, for those of you that pray, please help me be more freed up to say hello more often. and speak to strangers..... I moved from a really large town and security was constantly drummed into my head from the media, etc to a smaller one but even now, I really don't speak to folks enough.....Especially a small town as I watch others, folks can pass on the sidewalks without even a nod, a smile or a word.... I am not bashful, but sometimes the collective voice of my parents comes forth and says sternly "Don't speak to strangers......." I can imagine now that some of the people I see don't get any conversation in their lives that is not expected....They live alone. For many, their family is far away and contacts are few and friends are fewer every year as we age....The clerk says thank you for the purchase......but who actually speaks to them that doesn't have to...... This could really change people's lives.......

Thanks for being my "ah-ha" moment of the day..... Wait till I tell my hubby I'm not too old to learn

Have a happy and blessed day.

 

[Beekissed]

Will do! I usually nod, smile or even say a quick, "Hello!" to strangers I am passing on the sidewalk here in my small town. As I am an outsider here, I don't know many people. I was impressed when I was scouting this area for moving~everyone....and I mean everyone! waved when they passed me on the highway.

This was one of the reasons I moved here.

 

[bargain]

I think there are a lot of shy and modest people on BYC and that's okay because in our family's religious, we are told not to boast.....

So I'm going to open this up to tell about other's kindnesses......I'll start here:

In a recent Ornament swap, I was paired up with PaintedGemsRanch.........It was supposed to be one ornament.....What a giver she was I got 2 gorgeous ornaments AND 2 lovely stockings that look like antiques..... How did she know we had no Christmas stockings? What a generous generous gift....

I had surgery this year and somehow the word got out and our neighbors and community fed us for a Week until I said no more, but what a blessing.

Pumpkinpup recently gifted my sweet husband and I with some homemade vegetable soup on a really weathery day.....How could she know we were out with the critters all day and we had had neither breakfast or lunch because of our project!!!!!

My husband starts handing out coupons yesterday like Santa Claus yesterday and we almost had a mob scene. Then he starts tucking them under the cans etc throughout the store...Cool Guy!!!!

My Hubby spends a lot of time being a witness of giving to others......He lends out so many tools that we just cannot find anything when it's time to work again with them....He gives all his best clothes away.....

But best of all, his gift is the gift of listening......I'm the talker in the family but people - even strangers at our market or visitors on the farm just come to him to talk.....He never says much back but he listens.....In this busy rush time and world a listener is so rare....

So Yes Listening should be a RAOK as well....

Have a Happy and Blessed Day.......