If you can do more, and it's near that time, take it in and get the oil changed, or rotate the tires.
Leave a restaurant/grocerty coupon or gift card (not embarrassingly extravagant) attached to the visor.
Especially useful for a single mom or a college student, but also a nice gift for a newlywed or a new dad, especially if you can take care of something on the car that he would consider his responsibility (replace a headlight, .
I read about the first idea in Lisa Whelchel's Friendship for Grown-Ups
, the rest just came to me as I was typing. What acts of surreptitious or guerrilla kindness can you think of?
letting my friend use the walker that's been sitting in the garage for her husband, while they are vacation. That way they don't have to buy one. We aren't using it and neither is my mom who has one in the nursing home she lives in. If it works out, he can use it til he doesn't need it any more. Get some use out of something that's drawing dust. He is in need of it, not the dust!
ReplyDeleteI love this concept, and am disappointed you didn't have more responses because I can use more inspiration. As for me...
ReplyDeleteI have left a couple bags of nice hand-me-downs with food and an envelope of money (anonymously) for someone who would be embarrassed to know I helped her. That's nothing groundbreaking, though...
Some recipients would be mortified by this idea, so you have a good idea of how the recipient would respond: A group of friends has completely scrubbed a house top to bottom, washed laundry, linens, etc., for an unsuspecting friend who was away for the day. We mowed the lawn, trimmed the bushes, and pulled weeds. She was experiencing grief from the loss of a loved one, things were piling up pretty badly for several weeks, and her house was becoming an overwhelming burden to her. Again, not a particularly unusual idea...
I have a friend who decided to embark on a "Year of Thank-Yous." His aim was to hand write one note of sincere appreciation per day to someone. He wrote notes to former teachers of his, people in his community, business people, family members, and so forth. Unfortunately, he lost his steam sometime before the third month ... but I think it was a neat idea.
We like to continue a tradition started by some friends of ours who did it for us: We once heard a knock on our door after dark. I peeked out to see a glowing, magical tableau on the porch. There were lit votives everywhere and a glowing jack-o-lantern (we do Halloween). There was also a small tablecloth on the floor with individual places set with tiny pumpkin pies (and forks and napkins!), cups of steaming cider, and wrapped chocolates. It was amazing--and anonymous! We have no idea how we did not hear the activity on our porch! We now do this in the Christmas season for people who have no family living nearby and who we imagine could use a little extra attention.
I used to tutor a Mexican immigrant in English. Once time we met in a diner and had a bite to eat as we worked together, because I hadn't eaten all day and was famished. We stayed, practicing, for a long time. When I went to pay the bill, the hostess informed me that someone had paid for us. Not a new idea, but a powerful one when you've experienced it--made me cry.
As in your example, my brother once took our grungy car and fixed a problem with a tire, then had it detailed while we were visiting him. We had no idea until we saw him pulling back into the driveway.
We keep meaning to leave a scavenger hunt for friends someday, so maybe we'll do it sooner rather than later. We thought it would be neat to send a family on a wild goose chase with clues and thoughtful gifts along the way. Maybe the day ends with them at a concert with a picnic meal packed for them (and hidden somewhere?). I need to think on this some more...
"Some recipients would be mortified by this idea, so you have a good idea of how the recipient would respond"
ReplyDeleteI meant to say that **you have to have a good idea** of how the recipient would respond....
Cat, I should have passed these on- they were private comments:
ReplyDeleteI have been known to break into houses to clean them. Certain circumstances make this helpful for folks, usually extreme family emergency and I always try to get permission from *someone* as well as alarm information/a key.
This week with the power outages, we had an opportunity to offer the reverse (of a sort). A family with 7 kids was 3 days without power, so while we were gone for a prolonged afternoon, I offered that they could come to our house and run everyone through the bathtub, charge phones/laptops, throw in some laundry, use our oven/microwave, etc... Of course, I could offer to have them come while we were at home, but I think it was much easier on them without us there. (And this is a family that is familiar with our home and I trust.) They planned to come, but ended up having their power turned back on right before they were leaving."
Another friend suggested calling it ninja benevolence, or ninja acts of kindness.=)