Dear June,
Do you do things for others for the sake of just being nice or because you want something in return?
I was thinking about that – why I do things for other people, more specifically my family. Of course because ultimately I love them. I’ll do anything for them because I know they’ll do anything for me. And they have. They’ve done so much for me. I don’t think I could ever repay them in full. So the least I can do is sew them things they ask me to. Like the nursing pads for my sister. And today I sewed some pocket squares and lapel pins for my brother.
(I made four different pocket squares and one matching lapel pin. The pins have been a trial and error so far, but I think I got it. Tomorrow I’m going to sew the other matching lapel pins. Well, actually they’re buttons instead of pins, but you get the jist.)
And I have other projects I have lined up. Like my mom wants me to sew covers for her pots. My sister in law wants me to do some crafty things to her booklet. And I my brother in law wants me to sew this seat cushion thing for his car (and I’ll probably also sew him some pocket squares and lapel pins).
And I’m doing these things because they’re my family. And because they asked me to do it and I’m doing it because I want to. We do things for the people we love because we want to see them happy.
But what about strangers? Why do we do things to try and make them happy? Like opening the door. Or picking up something they’ve dropped. Or like today at Starbucks, I was 21 cents short but the cashier told me that she’d take care of it and she did.
And sometimes my first thought is why is this person being so nice to me when he/she doesn’t even know me. But then I think about how I try to be nice to strangers as well, and that’s because I want to be nice and do things for others.
And there are people who are genuinely nice. People who want to spread niceness and positiveness. And if everyone tried to be nice and positive and kind to everyone else, then I think the world would be a much happier place to be.
Stay nice and kind and positive June. I’ll write to you soon.
Love and all the good things,
Lar
earth to lar 