No Act of Kindness, No Matter How Small, Is Ever Wasted

/ crazytraintotinkytown

Have you ever had one of those moments, when a random act of kindness can turn your day on its head? Yesterday was one of those days for me. I had trudged home from the night-shift with Poison Pen’s snipes ringing in my ears and waiting for me on the kitchen table was a parcel. Now everyone likes surprises don’t they?

Thank you Wivi!

Thank you Wivi!

I carefully opened it to find the most amazing CDs from the lovely Wivi at my guilty pleasures. I have often remarked on her good taste in music; as she always has a music selection on her blog, some of which I’ve heard of and some I haven’t but it’s always part of my reading ritual that I listen to her latest recommendations. Many a time my Dad has commented on the music and subsequently she has become known at Dyson Abbey as the lovely lady with the nice music. For those that haven’t checked her out before I recommend that you do and I promise you that you’ll find a little something for all tastes.

I cannot tell you how much this kindly gesture turned my less than sunshine day around. Although, after my sleep the CDs in question had mysteriously disappeared only to be discovered blasting away in a family member’s allotment! So please know Wivi how much I appreciated your gift and I thank you for taking the time to brighten my day. You are a good soul!

One of my other blogging friends Jennifer from There & Back suggested that if I wanted to leave the glamorous world of shelf filling behind me, that I really ought to pull my finger out and start putting some work together and doing some research about pursuing a publisher or maybe agent. So we both agreed to showcase our work on our blogs.

Subsequently, as its my birthday on Friday, two days before DONNY OSMOND no less! I am going to post the whole story in glorious technicolor about my very public humiliation with Serial Shagging Simon and why I had to escape to Turkey in the very first instance! As I shall be thousands of miles away from where I want to be and where I was last year – halfway up a Turkish mountain with 11 people and a goat in a Fiat Doblo; I can’t think of sharing the day or my story with a better bunch of people.

If there is any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow human being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.

William Penn

76 thoughts on “No Act of Kindness, No Matter How Small, Is Ever Wasted”

  4. Oh, wow and now I’m sniffling into my tea (seriously), this piece was lovely. All the very best wishes for your buffuffday and many blessing to all who sail … oh, sorry wrong commemoration. Anyways, all gd luck with the launch … 🙂

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    • Bless you – I have a long way to go before anyone launches me LOL – but if you can’t get sound advice here where can you – loving all the work you’re putting in with your miniatures – where do you get the patience?

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    • In all your recent posts, I have had to have a box of kleenex besides me and a stiff cup of tea before I even open them and you’ve set me off again – thank you for being such good blogging friends. We’ve kept in touch since Turkey and you’ve cheered me on thru darker days, long may that continue x

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  6. There is an incident that haunts me to this day….. when I could easily have helped out a little old lady, but held back for some unfathomable reason. I’ve always wanted a redo on that one. (It was just a minor incident where she asked a clerk for the price of a box of detergent, but put it back on the shelf….)

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  8. How lovely! Yes, you’re so right about those random acts of kindness. I’m glad you were the happy recipient of one of them, even if your dad also benefited. 🙂 Happy Birthday for Friday, and I look forward to reading your tale. 🙂

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  11. There are times in life when you know that this is the right time, that your world has made a significant shift, that there is something else you must do. This is that time for you! There is no turning back – you must go forward. You have chosen a more difficult, unworn path. But it belongs to you and you alone. There are many types of adventures, but the greatest are the ones that occur within ourselves. You will have many of us applauding you from the sidelines. Go for it…

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      • You are on the right track!! Henry David Thoreau says it better: “As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”

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  12. Happy birthday on Friday, Dallas! So funny, you’re the second blogger I’ve found whose birthday is on December 7, Pearl Harbor Day in the USA. Robin from Life in the Bogs also has a birthday on Dec. 7 (http://bogsofohio.wordpress.com/). My son’s birthday is also on that day. It was so sweet to get the CDs from a blogger you admire. I’ll have to hop over there and hear her music recommendations. Thanks for your kind notes on Facebook. 🙂 Have an amazing day!

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  13. I cannot believe your birthday is two days before Donny Osmond’s… You are, like, soooooo lucky! Happy birthday!

    And, I completely agree with you on small acts of kindness turning a day around. There’s a lesson in there.

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  16. I can’t wait to hear the story from the start just think of the look on poison pen’s face when you get a book deal and the store decides as they will to have a huge display of your book and play on the fact you worked there once hehehehehe

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  18. This is your “kick in the pants” speaking. YAY! But don’t forget you need a 1-page query letter (a couple paragraphs on what the book is about—in your inimitable style, of course; then a paragraph on who you are and why you are uniquely qualified to write this book, and how many followers you have who are eager to buy it). That will be your entry into the publishing world. I’m looking forward to what paulaacton says about your huge book display in poison pen’s store 🙂 You have a very bright writing future ahead of you. As an editor, I can assure you of that.

    As for random acts of kindness, being on the giving end is the best feeling in the world. I have an elderly neighbor (88) whom I help out from time to time. This past weekend we went shopping for him at the Big Box store, Sam’s Club. He asked for, among other things, individual cups of pudding. Everything there comes in bulk, so we got him a box of about 50 individual puddings. I love doing these things for him. It feels so good, it’s almost selfish of me. But this morning he showed up on my doorstep (he lives one floor down), trying to turn the tables by sharing several cups of pudding and saying, “there were so many.” What a dastardly thing to do. I promptly ate two of them for breakfast and probably gained at least a pound in weight. (they were delicious).

    So Happy Birthday for Friday and your coming-out party. Since we’re in this together, I will post mine at the same time 🙂

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    • Gotcha Jennifer! I am nearly up to the first four chapters and I would have struggled but what’s made it easier is thinking that I’m writing it purely to give my fellow bloggers a good laugh. I’m on nightshift at the moment but will get round to the query letter – hmm need to do some research on that one! Is it what they call a synopsis? Incidentally, your old neighbour sounds the bomb. And in case you don’t know I am very very grateful that you took the time to inspire me!

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      • I’m grateful to you, too. This whole inspiring each other thing is giving me the push I need (and also so I can stop my husband from needling me about “finishing the book.”). You have a great comedic writing talent and it shouldn’t be wasted stacking shelves, so I hope you will get on with the publishing. To answer your question, a query letter is short, to the point, and intended to get an agent interested in your book. If they’re interested, the agent might then request a synopsis, which is a much more lengthy overview of the book. I haven’t tackled that obstacle course yet, as it seems hard to know what to put in and what to leave out, but it should be done in the same writing style as the book. Or the agent could ask for the first 3 chapters. They all have their preferred ways of doing things. Don’t worry. Your story will bowl them over. Sign me up for an advance copy 🙂

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  20. Yes!!!! You were born to write. As a writer you can look into making your trips to Turkey tax deductible. Research purposes of course! Please add me to your pre-order list. I love reading your adventures, your thoughts and observations. You could add a chapter to the next “Ex-pat Harem” book. It is stories and observations of foreign women and their Turkish men and adventures. You could write a survival guide for all of us with Turkish loves. I wish you every success. Hooray for you! sincerely, Deb

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  22. You will succeed! It just may take a little time. Don’t be put off by rejection letters. I read somewhere that the greatest writers did something creative with their rejection letters, to give them the strength to prove those publishers wrong (one decorated a room with them, haha) If you’ve had enough, you may want to consider self publishing. It really is easier than it looks!
    Happy birthday for Friday 🙂

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    • I will probably be able to wallpaper Buckingham Palace with my rejection letters – we’ll have to think of something really creative with mine possibly ritualistic burning? I’ll have to some research on self publishing as long as it doesn’t cost because if it does I won’t be able to return to Turkey – thank you for the birthday wishes

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  23. You absolutely should pursue something with your writing. While odds of making it big are very small, the ones who did make it big faced those odds and beat them. Why not you???

    And I’d rather go to your birthday party than Donny’s any day……

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  25. The pleasure is all mine – Happy Birthday – and happy tomorrow .. and the happy day after and the happy day after and the happy day after and the happy day after and the happy day after!

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  26. Ohh that’s really nice, I like her music taste too, been following right after Movember.
    I agree with Aniamal Couriers, when you decide to get your writings sorted we’ll more than happy to be part of it, meaning promoting, I like to believe I’m good promoting things 😉

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  28. Happy Birthday. It doesn’t surprise me that you are a fellow Sagi 🙂 The WordPress community has given me a new level of faith in the world – it is peopled by extraordinarily caring, supportive, inspirational beings who manage to convey it via a keyboard but also extend to tangible gestures such as you’ve been the beneficiary of. I also say… do it… share your talent with the world at large 🙂

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    • What’s the date of your birthday? I’ve only been blogging since the last week in April but its surprising how important blogging is to me now even on the days when I just want to read. I am truly richer for having my blogging pals in my life on bad and good days. Thank you for your kind words, I’m touched

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      • My birthday was a week or so ago, on 29 Nov… my 1 year blogging anniversary is nigh… I love both posting & reading blogs equally… the blogging world is so real yet so intangible – it must be a form of magic I think 🙂

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