Each year, my dear friends Teri, Dana, and Deb bake delicious bread loaves and sell them to friends and family.  The proceeds go towards buying supplies to make care packages for the homeless.  Teri has since moved out of state, but luckily Dana and Deb decided to keep up the tradition.  The loaves are baked on a production line, with the Kids and Grandkids!

This year, My Daughter and I were fortunate enough to be a part of this wonderful tradition (and happily purchased and ate all of our loaves).

Earlier this month, we met at Debs house and along with Skip (Deb’s wonderful Husband who fire grilled pizzas for dinner), Dana, the kids and I formed a well-organized assembly line and stuffed 50 bags full of supplies!  We also rolled blankets, scarves, gloves, and socks to take.

Once everything was done, we of course relaxed over wine and pizza!

We met this morning, and picked up 20 boxes of Little Caesars pizzas and headed to the park.  We have had constant rain this week, and were afraid that there wouldn’t be many people around.  Luckily, there were.

We all walked around and passed out the care packages, and gave everyone their own pizza.  They were extremely happy.  My Daughter, met a lady that truly touched her.  This sweet woman asked if we had a blue blanket, as it was her favorite color (and would match her outfit).  My Daughter found one and gave it to her, and she was over the moon!

After walking around the park, we caravanned to 2 other locations, but couldn’t find any more people in need.  After driving around a bit more, luckily we did, and randomly passed out more pizza and packages.  Even holding up traffic as we found a lady walking across the intersection.

Some of these souls were apprehensive in taking the packages, and others weren’t.  One man immediately wrapped his red and white polka dot scarf around his neck and wore it with pride!  We also gave a scarf to someone who asked if they could have it for their dog.

It was a great morning, and I am so blessed to have been a part of this.  More importantly, I’m truly thankful that my Daughter was so eager to help and tag along.  On the drive home, my daughter said to me “Mom, that lady I met is still stuck in my head” “She was so funny, and nice”.  I told her “That’s good that she connected with you on such a strong level”.  She looked over at me and said “I think she touched me because she was homeless, and she STILL had a positive attitude”.

BINGO!!!!

That “touched” ME because at that moment, she “got it”.    I told her in a nutshell, that speaks volumes.  We all go through things in our lives, some good, some bad.  It is how we FACE those problems, that can determine the outcome.  We should be content within ourselves.

Yes, we may not all live our ideal lives, but we must (if we can) make the most of what we do have. There are a myriad (SAT word as we are studying for those lovely things) of reasons why people are homeless; down on their luck, because they choose to be, mental illness, drug addiction, or other reasons.  But they are STILL people.  As we all are.  The thing about humans,  we are so adaptable.  In both good and limited situations.

I am so grateful to have had this talk with my Daughter, and to have seen her come to this very profound conclusion.  These are the moments that I cherish.  Another lesson learned, and another experience that she will never forget.  We do these things, not because we want to “feel good about ourselves”, rather “because we WANT to do for others”. 

This time of the year is easy to feel “jaded” because the Holidays are so commercialized.  This is a terrifc way to reiterate what the season is truly about.

I am grateful for all of my blessings!

Happy Holidays to you all!!

Until next time…..

Crystal

Here is a list of the supplies we used for the items that were passed out today.

A lot of these items can be saved from business trips, and hotel stays.

• Large Zip Lock Freezer bags (these are great and semi water proof)
• Travel sized: Shampoo, conditioner, soaps, toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouth wash
• Razors, dental floss sticks, Cotton Swabs
• Socks, chap stick
• Washcloths and baby wipes
• Bagged snacks: cookies, popcorn, trail mix, gum
• Nail clippers, hand sanitizers, hair combs