Ahhh the bucket list....Visit NYC, skydiving, stay in penthouse suite, meet Oprah, run a marathon....the list goes on and on. Today though, I figured I'd tell you a little story about how one of them got checked off the list on my recent cancerversary trip to the beach.
It was a random act of kindness by our friends that really starts the story..... My family and I have been dealing with a layoff of over 11mo with no work in sight. It has been harder than anything I have ever done (including battling cancer). It is living in a constant survival mode. I am OK with that for temporary purposes but it feels as if someone said, "hey go run this race, but we are not going to tell you how long it is... but you can't stop running till we say so". AHH!!
Anyway, layoffs suck right? Life changes yet again in my house and we adjust, as we always do. One thing cancer has taught me is that whether you like it or not you have to keep moving forward. Which brings me to my recent cancerversary.... It was my 2nd cancerversary and my daughters birthday on the same day. We are blessed with some amazing friends that invited us to their condo at the ocean to stay with them for a few days. This was already an amazing proposition for us, but happened to coincide with our special day too! WOW! After a really tough few months this was the amazing gift we needed and at just the right time.
We headed off to our adventure and were surprised with an oceanfront condo fully decked out in pink streamers for the occasion. The days we happened to pick to be there were the hottest in a while. On the Oregon coast that is crazy. It is always beautiful but typically cold. I have been many times but never when you could wear a tank top! It was amazing. I sat down on the beach watching my kids play and said a little thank you prayer. It was recharging, filled with beauty as the waves rolled in, and I felt for a moment not a worry in the world.
We stayed for 3 days but it was exactly what we needed and was given to us exactly when we needed it the most. It was a great trip filled with fun activities, relaxing, and amazing friends. I couldn't have asked for anything more to make this trip more amazing.....and then somehow it got even better.
I told you this was about a bucket list item not my trip :)
On our last day my son was using his skim board. He had been obsessed with it our whole time there. By the last day he had figured it out and gotten pretty good. I sat there on the last day staring at the magnificent ocean and again was thankful for our time. I noticed off to the right of my son a boy. He didn't appear to have ever been to the ocean. He was dressed in long sleeves and shorts and was only a bit bigger than my son. He had a boogie board (the thicker kind that go out to help you body surf the waves). He kept watching my son and his friend do the skim boards. He would watch and then take his boogie board and throw it down in the shallow waters and try to skim board on it. It is not for that so his attempts were continuously unsuccessful. For a good 15 minutes I am noticing this boy by himself try to do what my son was doing and then eventually someone ran over to him and told him to take it out in the waves. He did for a few minutes. My son had come over to me in that time and I pointed out that the boy had been watching them and trying to use his board for the same thing. He watched him in the waves for a minute then back to his skim boarding. My son then became aware of him and when he came out of the waves he looked at me. He said nothing but gave me a look and I knew what he was going to do. All I had to do was shake my head. It needed no words for either of us. He walked over to the boy and asked him if he wanted to learn how to skim board. He gave him the board and showed him how to do it. The boys face completely changed. It lit up like the 4th of July. He was so happy. I started to get tears myself. It feels amazing to help people and that is why I do it every chance I can, BUT to see my 8 year old son do a random act of kindness for someone was even more amazing than what I could have imagined. It was a perfect full circle of events. It started with a random act of kindness and ended on paying it forward to another. It was the perfect end to the trip.
Holly's Bucket List
Item #13. To see my kids do a random act of kindness (unsolicited by me)- DONE 8-18-2012
What kind of random act of kindness can you do for someone today??? It could be as simple as a smile to someone who needs it!
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