Fun Monday - For Goodness' Sake

My dear friend Nikki is hosting Fun Monday this week and her challenge was more altruistic than most....

For Monday, September 10th, we are challenged with doing a good deed. I am not looking for a story of when you have offered your help in the past, I actually want you in the next two weeks to go out and help someone. Go visit a nursing home, cook dinner for someone sick or with a new baby, donate to a charity or even send just a "thinking of you card" to someone who needs it. It doesn't matter what your good deed is, or how great it is. It just needs to help someone!

Of course, her challenge got me thinking... IS there such a thing as a truly selfless deed?

To be perfectly honest, I was SO looking forward to this, I was going to DO SOMETHING! But last night, I realized that I hadn't done anything extraordinary for anyone... just the regular old stuff that I usually do. But maybe that's a good thing. Being a "good deed-doer" is so ingrained into my nature that I don't even think about it anymore. A normal week of deed-doing might consist of:

1) Babysitting my granddaughter because her Mom and Dad have to work. It's terribly inconvenient sometimes, but we do it anyway. I was a mom in the middle of nowhere and didn't really have a babysitting option, no money to hire someone, and occasionally would leave my son with my mother so I could work or just take a couple of hours for myself to breathe. I can relate.

2) Making dinner or just inviting the in-laws over. This involves cleaning the downstairs, putting stuff away, concocting a dinner that is diabetic-friendly, having them arrive, make small talk, serve dinner, and then they leave. As exhausting as it is to get ready, I generally enjoy their visits and feel pretty happy inside when they leave. The first time that happened, I was shocked. I'd been under a great deal of stress, and this was just the one thing I DID NOT need, but I cleaned the house, had them over, and surprisingly felt happy and relaxed by the time they left. Very weird, but worth doing again.

3) Remembering birthdays. I used to do this so well, but I think my brain finally ran out of room for all those dates (I suppose I could kick out all the ones I don't really use anymore, like the year Columbus discovered America, or the day JFK was assassinated). I am trying hard to make sure I don't forget anyone, but have still managed to blow it a couple of times - so happy belated birthday Mark, and happy belated birthday to the Ex-Law. I WILL add you to BirthdayAlarm.com today so this won't happen again!

4) Free backrubs. I have a knack for finding and removing knots in muscles. I can't do it a lot because my hands just don't handle that well for very long. But one of my co-workers has been under a lot of stress lately, spending long hours hunched over her computer, which has resulted in a string of knots in her shoulders and back. One day she wandered into my office (as she does from time to time) and mentioned it. I had her sit down and went to work on her. The relief was temporary, but it did help. She comes back almost daily for an "adjustment" and sometimes she brings Hershey's kisses with her.

5) Being honest. In all facets of life. I don't tell lies and I don't steal. And I try to instill this behavior in my son because it seems to have fallen out of favor with some of the younger set. Some seem to believe that if they don't get caught, it's okay. A couple of weeks ago, my husband took my son to the flea market - a huge thrill because such wonderful things can be had for mere pennies. While there, my son picked up and examined many, many things to possibly purchase. One of them, he walked off with and didn't realize it until he made to pick up something else and realized he still had this other thing in his hand. He walked back to the booth where he'd gotten it, apologized to the vendor and returned the item. The vendor was SHOCKED. When Z-boy told me about it, I laughed and told him that when I was a girl, I did the exact same thing in a bookstore. I'd tucked a book under my arm that I was considering, actually bought a different book, and was halfway home before I realized I still had that other one under my arm. It too, was returned with apologies. I guess it runs in the family.

But for every good deed I could think of, I got something out of it: Time with family members, a clean house, a relaxed co-worker, a better world. Perhaps there is no such thing as a purely good deed.

But it doesn't mean I'll quit trying to find one!

I'll be hosting FUN MONDAY next week - so come back here tomorrow for your assignments!!! I think you'll like it. In the meantime, I'll brush up on my linky-abilities...