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Random Acts of Kindness: The best kind of frugal luxury
Posted on September 3rd, 2009 13 comments
It’s a post I’ve been meaning to write for a while now. A recent blog post at The Thrifty Chicks (one of my favourite blogs) called Ever Been Claimed made me feel inspired to finally write it.
Living on a frugal budget means looking beyond material possessions in order to find fulfillment, inspiration and joy. The frugal life requires more attention to “natural highs” that come from natural beauty and the many joyous experiences found in simple moments. When I read in Tracey McBride’s book, Frugal Luxuries (Tracey also writes a blog called Frugal Luxuries by the Season) that random acts of kindness could be considered a frugal luxury, it inspired me to look out for such inspiring, heart-warming moments, and savour them as if they were precious gifts.
It has also made me pause with gratitude to think of the random acts of kindness I’ve been a recipient of. There have been a few spectacular ones, but only one that really had a major impact on my life.
It happened in January, 2008. Josh and I had been hoping to get a kitten for months, but hadn’t found the right opportunity. We’d found some kittens we loved at a vet clinic in the summer, but were too far down on the waiting list, and the kittens were taken by someone else. Finally, though, Josh came home one evening with great excitement: he’d found us a kitten, and she was beautiful. It was through a local adoption, facilitated by a pet store. The next night, after work, we decided to go and get her. Unfortunately, the pet store was quite far north of where we lived in the city, and the weather was terrible. The alleyway, where we parked our car, was full of snow and ice. We had to dig our way out, and defrost the car. The driving was terrible. After only going a few blocks we knew we wouldn’t make it in time before they closed, so we vowed to go the next day.
We did make it to the pet store the next day. I walked in, took one look at the adorable kitten, and was sold. She was perfect. Her colours were gorgeous, and Josh had already told me that the pet store owners had said she had a lovely temperament. I knew I wanted her.
But this was all from the sidelines, watching as she was cradled in another woman’s arms. I couldn’t wait for my chance to hold her. That is, until I heard the woman say, “I’ll take her.”
I couldn’t believe it! If only we’d left earlier the night before! If only the weather had been better! If only we had covered parking! If only…
My eyes filled with tears and I walked swiftly out of the pet store, not wanting to cry in public.
The woman chased me out of the pet store a few minutes later, still holding the kitten, saying,”If you want her, you can take her. I have an English bull dog at home anyway.” If I really wanted her, she was mine.
I couldn’t believe it! The woman actually gave up a potential addition to her family, just to make me, a total stranger, happy. I happily accepted the kitten, thanked the woman, and from that moment on, had someone new and special become a part of my life.
Butternut and I have a very special bond. She purrs when I get home, licks my face, sleeps next to me at night, and reserves all of these special treatments just for me - no one else is shown quite so much love. (Weelll, occassionally my sister, but we are twins, so Butternut probably just gets confused!)
Butternut loves participating in my crafts, watching me while I cook, and snuggling at night. She is incredibly affectionate, very playful and gets into everything. She’s not aloof like cats can be - she shows me a great deal of attention and love. She’s certainly been important to me during the difficult experiences I’ve had in the last 1.5 years, such as unemployment, illness, and most recently, a break up. (I got full custody.) She makes me smile everyday. It’s like she was meant to be my cat!
I sure wish I could thank that woman who gave me one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever been given!
Please share - what is the greatest random act of kindness that you’ve ever received, witnessed, or given to someone else?
13 responses to “Random Acts of Kindness: The best kind of frugal luxury”
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psychsarah September 3rd, 2009 at 08:18
SQ-I’m tearful and smiling at the same time right now reading about your special relationship with Butternut. My girl Tiger, age 15, is quite ill and weak, and I’m not sure if she will be with us much longer. She sounds a lot like Butternut-very affectionate and loving. I’m trying to savour my happy memories of our relationship while I await some test results from the vet. This post helped me to do that. Thank you-I’m personally considering this post a random act of kindness.
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What a lovely story!
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You’re Butternut is adorable! I’ve often missed my two dogs lately - seems change does that to me. Your story is sweet and inspiring that the good in people can come out in unexpected ways.
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Saver Queen September 3rd, 2009 at 09:10
psychsarah, I’m so sorry to hear about Tiger. I know how you feel, because before Butternut, I had two cats that were with me through most of my childhood into my years as a grad student. They both passed away in the same year and I was heartbroken. You will always cherish your memories of Tiger. Her life may seem too short, but she will always mean so much to you. Her love will never really go away.
Pam, sorry to hear you are missing your dogs, too. Certain times of our life, certain weather, and certain seasons really have their ways of triggering memories. Hope you can still feel warmed by the memories of them.
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Your kitty is so adorable!! She reminds me of our Calico, Zoey.
Your story inspired goose-bumps. I hope you don’t mind, I’ve written a short post and linked to you from our Seasons blog. It’s ironic that in writing about the kindnesses found in your life, you extended one to me by the kind mention of my book. Thank you so much.
Warmly,
Tracey xo -
What an amazing story!
I don’t have anything nearly that huge. However, I regularly go out in public alone with 2 small children. Strangers offer to help unload my groceries or give my child a quarter to go on the pony ride when I forgot my change purse. These little things really mean so, so much to this frazzled mom.
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Catherine September 3rd, 2009 at 16:43
SQ your furbaby is truly a gift! Someone being there for you through thick and thin helps in so many ways. She’s adorable!
psychsarah I’m so sorry to hear about Tiger :o(
We had a kitten from birth - really - I got up every two hours to feed her with a dolls bottle -we thought she had been abandoned by her mother, but, in fact was the last kitten to be carried to another spot. I digress. We had Diddy until she was 18 years old. Hard day to have the vet visit.
Took 5 years before I could get another kitten and in fact got two. Cleo and Alley. They are 12 now and we love them.
Don’t tell my husband I told you this…but, one of the nicest random acts of kindness I heard was one he told me. He had been to a meeting and stopped into a restaurant for supper. Nearby was a young couple obviously celebrating something important. He said they went over the menu with a fine-tooth comb trying to decide what they could afford to order. He said they were very sweet. Anyway, they placed their order and enjoyed their special evening.
On the way out of the restaurant, hubby stopped to pay his bill and asked to have the young couples bill added to his. I would have loved to have seen the look on their face to learn that there was in fact nothing owing! -
Wow, ^^^ that story really moved me…
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Saver Queen September 3rd, 2009 at 23:38
Oh Catherine, that random act of kindness is just beautiful. I’m so touched. How positively wonderful of your husband to do that. You must have been so proud of him when you learned of that story. My heart has been warmed. It makes me wonder what random acts of kindness I could do for others, too.
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Anonymous September 4th, 2009 at 01:18
My little contribution … my purse is usually stuffed with coupons. When I’m grocery shopping I’ll look at the cart of the person in front or behind of me in line. If I see they have something that I have a coupon for (but I know will never use) I hand it over to them. They’re usually surprised, but grateful. It’s just something small.
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Hi there-thats a fab story. On my 40th birthday, walking back to our hotel for the night, we talked to a homeless person who needed £10 to stay in his refuge for 2 nights, so I passed this on-I hope he did use it for what he said!!
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One day while I was busy buckling my kids into the van, I saw a vehicle park beside us, but instead of the driver getting out, she proceeded to put her hands and head down on her steering wheel and was obviously sobbing (that whole body shuddering kind of crying). It was heartwrenching and I tried not to watch and give her space, but I had three kids to buckle and it took some time. Just when I had the last one buckled, I saw the lady leave her vehicle. I hopped out of mine and called to her “Do you need a hug?”. She looked at me confused, but I spread my arms wide and asked again “You look like you need a hug”. She teared up again, and gave the hardest hug I have had in a long time and explained that she DID need a hug because her sister in law had just been diagnosed with a terminal illness. We were both teary at the end of the hug, and both better for it.
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My mom was helping me change a flat on my car when she came to visit a couple years ago and about halfway through the project we just couldn’t get one of the nuts to budge so we tucked things under the car and went inside to sign up for BCAA.
I was going to call them a couple days later and ask for help (its cheaper that way and I didn’t need the car right away)so I left the spare and the tools tucked under the car and didn’t think about it again until I noticed the tools were missing a few days later. I was SO mad until I looked more carefully and realized they weren’t GONE they were inside my car (clearly I had also forgotten to lock the car
) with the flat AND someone had put the temporary tire on for me! I was SO grateful for the help! I wrote a big thank you note, attached it to the inside of the passenger side window, left it there for about a week and just hoped the person would see it.
At that point in time I was feeling really overwhelmed by all the little chores that sometimes build up in spite of your best efforts to be a “grown up” and this act of random (and anonymous!) kindness lifted my spirits for days. In fact it still does!
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