December 9, 2010
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…holiday cheer #6…
my mom, bless her, is pretty much a saint. sure, as her kid, i can whine and complain about all the various injustices i faced while i was growing up: the relatively relaxed curfews, the constant show of support for my artistic pursuits, or the endless hours spent caring for me in the sickly winters of my youth (you know, all those terrible, lame, unfortunate things that loving moms do, lol). at the end of the day, though, i will always, always be proud of her and thankful for everything she does in the world. which brings me to this post.
you see, my mom has been working tirelessly with her crochet hook and yarn for several weeks now. i finally had to know what sort of project she was so invested in. turns out that she was making a granny square lap blanket for each of the workers at the nail salon she goes to for her pedicures. apparently, they had all gone crazy over the random handmade things that she’d had with her on several visits. so, she just decided that she wanted to give them all something handmade for the holidays!
my favorite part about this is that she doesn’t expect any sort of reciprocation. these aren’t her close friends that she’ll be meeting for gift exchanges over lunch at a restaurant downtown. and she didn’t make a bunch of afghans in the hopes of getting free services or anything. she just wanted to do something special for these people who are a tiny part of her life. i think that’s such a cool concept!
i don’t know if i’d have the guts to just do something like that. i’ve often thought that it might be nice to make an extra goody bag of baked goods for the mailman at christmas, or to send thank you cards to people who’ve been friendly and helpful in the stores i frequent. but i have always been afraid that it would just be, well…creepy. i’m ridiculously impressed that my mom just goes for it. maybe i will leave a gingerbread man for the mailman this year (if i ever actually manage to get around to baking them)! either way, i can make sure to spend the rest of the holiday season passing on some good cheer to the people who work hard to keep the world moving.
so, take a moment and think about the service people around you. is there anything nice that you could do to show them that you appreciate what they do? even just an extra smile and a friendly “thank you” might brighten the day of someone who makes your day-to-day life just a little nicer.
