Quiet Gestures

Dressed in 80's garb for a theme night out on the town!

Note that she is wearing my earrings from the eighties!

Do you ever feel on high alert when you hear something unexpected three times in the same day, or three times in a short interval? I do! I usually ask myself what should I be learning from this, what message should I take away.

I’m embarrassed to say, on occasion, I make the kids lunch and set up their coffee for the next day. You know those weeks when life is difficult, too hectic with not enough sleep. Yes, I know they’re grown ups. But who doesn’t need a break once in a while. That’s just what moms do! Besides, they’re always good to me, so it works!

The other day during conversation Pepper mentioned that she only eats half of her sandwich for lunch. This has gone on for years now. I wondered what happened to the other half. She nonchalantly volunteered that she gives it to the homeless people in the area where she works.

I remember hearing about some scruffy old guys who stop by to talk to her; she’ll ask them if they’d like one of her snacks, an apple or cookies. A few disabled pensioners, some are homeless. For some reason when she first told me about the old guys , it didn’t quite compute. When she mentioned giving half her sandwich away for some reason I felt surprised. But I'm not sure why!

There's a tenacious old crippled guy who walks to the mall daily. Apparently he was turned down when applying for a much needed scooter. Pepper was outraged. I saw him painfully inching his way down the road in a sideways manner…I was shocked that he didn’t qualify for that scooter. Finally after years of living this way he was approved. Now he rides around so proud of his new freedom!

Next day Bryan mentioned that he left his uneaten banana bread on a bench where he knows some homeless people frequent. That too surprised me. Reading my friends blog, hearing her surprise at how her girls are making a difference and it brought a tear to my eye.

For the first half of her life Pepper was raised fairly affluently. I always worried being a spoiled princess may be detrimental. Not being privy to the plight of the less fortunate could cause her to be less compassionate. Well as a teen her world opened up, seeing the homeless on the Vancouver East side, listening to the woes of kids less fortunate at school and living on a tight budget with me! My worry was futile.

So what did I learn from hearing this three times you may ask. Well I realized the importance of those small everyday quiet gestures of compassion filling a daily need. Those gestures done on a continuum can have as big an impact on the less fortunate as those grandiose yearly contributions! This new perception can be applied to the importance of many small acts of kindness shared daily.