Free Love Give-Away Stories
Okay everyone, are you ready to play?
This is your space to tell your daily (well, nearly daily) stories of your experience with the Free Love Give-Away, our Habitude Project for February. What did you try? How did it go? How is this little practice in transformation changing you or others? Do tell! Anytime you want to add a story or read a story, just click on the cute little heart up there, in the masthead (see it? my husband made it for me) and it will take you right back here to catch up.
If you need help getting ideas for how to spread a little love around you can order these, or read this post-and-comments, or try these ideas out with your kids.
Ooooo…I can’t wait!
20 comments
thank you for the reminder! i just made a poster for the woman in apartment #1 and stuck it to her door that reminds her of all of her amazing qualities and what a wonderful woman she is.
Jamie Hollis and Bobbie, could you please email me your snail mail address so I can get your cards out to ya? moi at magpie dash girl dot com!
okay so this isn’t something i did but it was done for me…
today i went to have my eyebrows waxed and to get a haircut, when i started to leave the hairdresser said a friend of mine had already paid for it…i got to look spectacular and i got it for free…can’t beat that…
rose — oooo! what an amazing treat. pay it forward girl! (in whatever way you can.)
Okay, I was going to write mine in here. But it was really, really long. And it’s my blog so I’ll go on if I want to. :-) So to hear about my first attempt at a give away, you can read the post for 1/1/07.
Thanks for posting everyone. It’s giving me great ideas and lots of positive energy!
i cut out hearts and wrote quotes on them … like
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” Dr.Seuss
and “Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So… get on your way.”
and ones that were simple – like “You are beautiful!”
and i stuck them in places all over my commute.. like in the seat on the metro, and in a grocery bag, in the newspaper stand…
i love this :)
Today (2nd) I visited a friend who’s shut in because of a car accident. She has a brain injury and has to be in a dark room all day for weeks and week. I brought her a pot of dafodills (substitute sunshine) and a dog to pet. (Have you seen my Samson? He could make anyone feel better.)
Every day I get excited about what I might get to do tomorrow!
Day One was pretty simple and straightforward, and it’s on my blog http://hashiworks.blogspot.com.
Day Two turned out to be not so simple. I let Lauren come home from school at 9:30 AM even though I knew she wasn’t really sick (though I accepted that her muscles were hurting). But then I made her stay in bed till 3 pm (standard procedure in our house for a kid too sick to go to school). Does that count as an act of love?
Our cat came home from the vet wearing an “Elizabethan collar”. She was SO FREAKED OUT by it that I took it off her, leaving her free to lick the wound on her tail. Does that count as an act of love?
There are complexities in this business. Is anyone else finding that?
netflix gifts for new moms/people who just had surgery/people who are sick.
i just got 2 – one for a friend who is home with a baby for the first time
and one for a person who is going to have surgery.
:) tomorrow is the day i ask people in the little church i work at to sign up to love the rest of the month…
i was thinking the free hugs thing would be a great thing to do this month :)
Natala — I can’t wait to hear what the response is at your church!
Hashi – Isn’t it funny how we try to do something all free-and-easy and we start worrying right away about the rules around it? Oh, may we all be released from the nagging voice of legalism! :-)
Yesterday I was laid low with a migraine most of the day, but I managed to squeeze in a free love give away that I feel really proud of: I wrote a real long-hand letter to my good friend in Thailand. When she first moved over seas we used to write real letters all the time. Now it’s just the occasional email. She’s going through a really hard time — something equivalent to the loss of a parent — so I’m also sending her one of Jen Lemen’s Soulstorm Altars. I can’t wait to go to the post office tomorrow and send it air mail. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5331620
What to do today, today???
This migraine just won’t go away. It’s surpirsing how much some low-grade pain can dampen my spirits. I don’t really want to be extra loving to anyone right now. I haven’t used any of my Free Love Give Away Cards, and the hand warmer that I picked up for my mailman is still sitting in the shopping bag.
I decided to be kind to myself and just trust that a love give away opportunity, no matter how small, would avail itself to me everyday without planning. (At least until my energy’s not so tapped out by the migraine pain.)
Yesterday, it was almost the end of the day and nothing particular had appeared — not even the opportunity to let someone into a long line of traffic or what-have-you. Then I went to my Stich-n-Bitch group (The PurlyGirls) and we had a stash swap. I had a bunch of duplicate needles that my grandmother had passed on to me, so I brought those to trade out. At the end of the night there were two left and I was able to randomly give them away to two needle hounds in the group without taking anything in return. It was delightfully surprising how happy people were to get a small thing for free! On the way out the door I tipped our patient bartender and extra $2 and went on my slightly merrier way.
Cyber hugs won’t hurt, so have as many as you need Rachelle! I also get migraines and just landed in the ER last week from an intractable one…ITU what you’ve said!!! Hope today is better in regards to the pain!
Today, I gave myself something I don’t do very often…a DQ Blizzard in my favorite non-chocolate flavor! I completed a job interview and felt like splurging just a bit. Then I got together my sweetie’s next “pre-Valentine’s day special”…a handful of Dove chocolates and a Nascar mug. I’ll sneak it into his car tomorrow while he’s at work! –Karla
I really like this idea and am going to try it out. I hope I remember.
Yesterday was my love-all-day-while-driving day. I stopped for lots of pedestrians, waited patiently while people did 9-point turns in order to parallel park and didn’t rush the left had turn light when it turned red (um I mean, deep purple. I would never run a red…oh, nonono!:-)
I was surprised how often I actually already do this stuff, and it made me feel good to know that I was aware of the needs of other people — even if it was just while driving. It also made me think about how living in community makes me a more loving person. I’m super aware of pedestrians because both of my housemates are non-drivers and have pointed out to me how many time wheeledpeople don’t see them. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t see the peds as well.
I took coupons that I had clipped and stuck them around in the grocery store at the appropriate places for someone to use.
I made an appointment to take my Mom to the hairdresser (on me).
I ran into a young woman I know who is 6 months pregnant and told her how beautiful she looks.
I called an old friend who I don’t see often to tell her I miss her.
I scored two with one gesture when I helped a young woman get a job cleaning house for a friend of mine who really needed a house keeper because her inablility to keep up with housework and her job as an accountant and family needs were causing her much distress.
Hope you are feeling better today.
Thanks for inspiring us.
I’ve always been “anti-valenti” for the reason that I dislike the commercialization of love. But yesterday while grocery shopping on a whim I picked up some red heart chocolates, to hand out at university today. It was neat to see friends so happy to receive a little something on this day, just from someone who cared.
When I was picking up groceries for my neighbor yesterday, I saw that Trader Joes had nice roses for an inexpensive price. Right away I could see in my minds eye how the lavender and white roses would looked arranged for my two housemates. I knew that Sharon would like them tall and in a certain vase, while Rebecca would should like them them cut shorter, nosegay style. I went home and snuck them into their bedrooms for Valentines Day. (Tee Hee!)
I also had lots of fun last weekend wallpapering Leavenworth (a little Bavarian style tourist town) with my little free love notes. Chambermaids, waiters, and the kind people who clean the public restrooms all got one. ON Monday, the lady sitting next to me at my knitting circle saw one in my bag and asked if she could give it to her five year old daughter. So fun! Let’s all pay it forward!
Magpie Girl (Rachelle) says:
Hmm…do we have two Rachelle’s?!!?? What are the odds? I’ll try to switch my comment name to Mapgie G.
Week two.
Took coupons to the store again.
I was coming out a door the other day when I met two older women, one in a wheelchair, struggling to get the wheel chair over the threshold of the door. I stopped, went back and helped them.
Took my mom grocery shopping and to the beauty shop.
Cooked a lovely candlelit dinner for my family (who wanted to know who was coming?)
Bought myself a beautiful bunch of lavender colored mums and daisys.
Aola,
My family always wants to know if someone’s coming to dinner when I set the table nice too!
Yesterday was the 50% off sale at Value Village and I put a whole heap of clothes on hangers for the poor dressing room person. I also really did only take in 3 items and limit my dressing room time to 5 minutes — though I did glare a little at all the other people who didn’t. :-)
I listened very carefully to stories told round the table at the sitch n bitch last night.
I’m still waiting to give my mailman a present and to tip the lady who helps us clean once a month with a gift card and, of course, a free love give away cards. I love thoes things!
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