A Tad about Tipping and More...

For some reason this week's entry has given me more trouble than I would have anticipated.  I mean, when you think of it, the letter "T" is one of the more prominently seen and used letters in the alphabet.  I don't have the statistics on that but, when I play scrabble I have much less challenge figuring out how to use the "T" than say, the "Q"...    Yet, in the kindness blog, for me, "Q" came with enjoyable ease.

Here's where I've landed regarding my week of "T" kindnesses.  I've been mindful of each opportunity I've had to tip.  I've pondered how, when, and why tipping became a part of conducting oneself in the world.  Mind you, I have not researched it (maybe I will now that I'm thinking about it more),  but for this week, I tipped a tad more than I might usually when getting a couple of ice coffees on a couple of mornings (I'm not quite the coffee addict my sister blogger is).  I had the opportunity to tip when getting a small grinder (sub sandwich) at a locally run joint.  I tipped at another restaurant when having brunch with friends at a super cute restaurant which uses all local ingredients.  I tipped at a local bakery after buying a couple loaves of artisan breads for a pot luck.  Tipping is a concrete way of saying "THANKS"... a really important "T" word and one used in my co-blogger's column this week.

The word "thanks" makes me meander to the "More" part of the title of this entry.  I want to reflect on a way in which I witnessed one family give a heartfelt thanks to another family at the very potluck to which I took the bread mentioned above.  This was so much fun to see.  Kids were playing in the yard.  It was dusk.  The adults were lounging on this marvelous, wide porch.  The tikki torches were lit.  Good conversation surrounded us as did the cool air.  At  a certain point in this idyllic, laid back, summer gathering I heard one mom say to another mom, "Here...  this is for you all.  Do you know where it came from?"  The one mom bestowed upon the other mom this perfectly shaped, medium sized, white pumpkin she'd just harvested from the family's vegetable garden.  She explained that this pumpkin grew out of the compost where the white pumpkin (given by the recipient's family) had been tossed after Halloween last Fall.  There was only one white pumpkin which grew in their garden.  And it was so perfectly shaped.  What a special and thoughtful gift to give this lone,unusual, rare and surprise growth of fruit to the family who gave the gift last year.
This leaves me aware that in yet another way-- what goes around comes around -- in good ways!