Today's random act was inspired from yesterday. We loved delivering a cheerful surprise to an unsuspecting individual. I told them about the girl who wrote letters to people and how it cheered them up. They loved the idea and I said we could give them a teabag. Elliott at first was like "A teabag, why would anyone want a teabag?" I said it has been very cold this spring and a lot of people have been sick with colds. I explained to him that you can boil water and make it into tea and it is helps someone who has a sore throat. I told him the quote about how we are like a teabag, we never know how strong we are until we are in hot water. Cooper said we could make a card to put the teabag in. We set out to look for a quote to put inside the card. We found a really nice story about how the teabag relates to Easter. It was beautifully written but was too long for our homemade cards. We found two that we liked the best. On the outside of the card Elliott wrote a Cup of Cheer and Cooper wrote Random Act of Kindness. On the inside we cut and pasted "Life is like making tea! Boil your ego, Evaporate your worries, Dilute your sorrows, Filter your mistakes, Taste the Happiness" On the other side we cut and pasted another quote "Remember the tea kettle is always up to its neck in hot water, Yet it still sings!" and we taped a Twinings English Breakfast Teabag in it's red envelope. Our kitchen table was a Random Acts of Kindness assembly line, cutting and pasting, writing and taping. We had 20 completed cards and decided to head out to spread a cup of cheer. We thought about who would like tea, since not everyone does...I said we could go to the bookstore because many people there drink coffee and some enjoy tea. We entered Barnes and Nobles and the boys had their bag of cards ready to go. They walked to the cafe and took notice of the crowd. I could tell they were nervous and stood beside them at the bookshelf closest to the cafe. I spotted a table of three young ladies and said "you could make three people happy at one time". I thought they were going to have a race for a second to get to them, when Elliott stopped and approached an older female reading a book by herself. He walked up to her and said "Here's A Cup of Cheer". She smiled and said "Thank You". He replied "You're Welcome" and was running off as I saw her face light up as she read the inside. Cooper went up to a table with a Mom and two teens. He decided that this was going to be his first table. He passed out his cards and then they were excitedly searching for the next person who would get "cheered" up. One by one, we went around Barnes and Noble, surprising someone reading, or searching for a book. One lady even came and found us after and told us that was so sweet of us. Elliott gave the three young ladies at the cafe our homemade cards, they were most likely college students, and they in return lavished him with thanks. Cooper found a young man sitting at a table by himself and he said he chose him because he looked sad (because he had his face resting in his hand). They boys stayed close to each other and would keep track of how many cards they had left to give out. Sometimes, in all their excitement, they would try to cheer someone up twice!! It made for a great laugh for all of us, and many of the recipient began to watch the boys going around the store and they were watching the expressions on the faces of those who received a card. It was a fun filled afternoon, creating and making cards, then delivering and watching the smiles...It was as if we shared the cup of cheer as we watched the happiness spread as quickly as we passed our cards out. This kind of kindness was everyone's cup of tea!
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