Acts of Kindness

RANT AND RAVE Rant to complaints about Little Free Libraries that don’t look “maintained.” If you think it’s messy, straighten it up while browsing. These are a community resource, and it takes many hands to keep them neat and well-fed with books. Rave for all the libraries in our neighborhood that provide a great way to find children’s books, weird novels and learn new things.

RAVE to the TSA PreCheck agents at Sea-Tac Airport the other day. What a pleasant surprise at the great attitude of the agents, even during the government shutdown. Special thanks to the agent who was directing passengers through the X-ray machine. He had a positive/funny comment for every passenger, making each one of us smile.  

RAVE to the Teatro ZinZanni staff. This dumbo screwed up his reservation and then showed up on the wrong day. The staff found us a great table and treated us like long-lost friends. A spectacular night.

RAVE to our on-the-ground city workers. Our son, who faces serious mental health challenges, disappeared this week. Our amazing community of friends hit the streets, posting flyers and talking to transit workers, maintenance workers and those within the social networks of the city, including the CARE coordinators and MID workers. Every one of them was helpful. In the end, they helped us find our son and get him home to us. Thank you to all those who work on and around the streets and transit hubs in Seattle. You reminded my family and our community of friends why Seattle is a great city. 

RAVE to the city of Seattle trash collector who waved at me through the window and then waited patiently for me to drag the trash can to the curb after I had forgotten to put it out. They have been unfailingly courteous and efficient since we moved in. 

RAVE to the woman at the Kirkland PCC who helped me back out of an impossibly tight parking space. I was OK going in, but was stuck between two concrete posts, no matter how I maneuvered, trying to back out. She guided me out inch by inch while standing in front of my car and even adjusted my side mirrors twice. I was so relieved to have finally made it, I don’t think I thanked you enough or told you how much your taking time to help meant to me.

RAVE to a jogging passerby on the Interlaken bike trail who introduced herself as a photographer. After complimenting our little trio — my 5-year-old son, our dog and me — for having such delightful energy on a wet and soggy morning, she offered to take our picture. As a solo parent, I have very few photos of the three of us that aren’t selfies. Thanks to her, we now have a beautiful professional shot for our holiday cards!

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The best mail I ever received

In the back of one of my closets is an unopened FedEx box from my mother. My 92-year-old mom died on March 8, 2019, and this box was delivered on March 11, 2019, as though it was mailed by the dead.

The box is probably nothing. Mom had trouble throwing things away, so she’d often mail discarded items to me, her only daughter, instead. I got a package about once a month, usually like this one: a box about the size of a soccer ball. I received several used tablecloths, her father’s plaid bathrobe, mismatched cutlery, her mother’s apple corer, suspenders, an ashtray (Mom hadn’t smoked in 70 years), wooden coat hangers and knee-high, fluorescent-orange socks. My unopened box probably contains broken pencils and used place mats, and maybe something she picked up for me at the Treasure Chest, her assisted-living facility’s thrift store. She once sent me a clown trivet she purchased there.

Right now, that package sitting unopened in my closet is the best piece of mail I’ve ever received — because it could contain anything. My mother and I had a difficult relationship, and toward the end of her life she would say, “Tell me something good you remember.” I would dredge up what I could. But now I wonder whether these boxes of broken things she habitually sent were her trying to discard her bad memories. Or were they an instrument of repair — gifts that she genuinely thought in her dementia would help me see how loving she really was? The only choice I have to make now, though, is how to receive her last gift — and how I’m going to construct my memory of her. I’m not ready to open that package yet.

Sarah Sloane

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The Dream

“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” —Yoko Ono

Positively Purging-I welcome your feedbacks in the comments and your likes and passing the real life wisdom on to others as I embark on this new venture of “positively purging“, as I know each of these pieces represents something…

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Consequences

I try to tell my nieces and nephews that every decision always comes with a consequence, so be careful and mindful of the decisions you make.

Positively Purging-I welcome your feedbacks in the comments and your likes and passing the real life wisdom on to others as I embark on this new venture of “positively purging“, as I know each of these pieces represents something…

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That’s a word!

not everything needs to be processed.

some things just need to be felt.

sat with.

cried through.

& eventually

released without a lesson.

Released without a lesson. Wow. That’s one piece of healing I often miss. I’m always looking for the reason, the lesson to give it purpose Or meaning. Thank you for the reminder that sometimes I just need to feel and express without agenda. – tides before perfection

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