Heart Attack!

Tonight someone doorbell ditched us; at first I thought it was Olivia coming home, but she never opened the door, so I checked and nobody was there. So then I thought it was young women (maybe with Olivia in the car) since they were out doing something together tonight... I saw a waiting car, and two kids finally ran over to it. So I went inside, turned off the porch lights, and then hurried outside and started running to catch the car. One person was still on the side of the road, and they then ran and jumped into the car and yelled, "He's coming! Go!" They took off, so I reached out and I almost touched the car as they sped away.

It was kind of funny to chase after them, but then I thought I may have spoiled their fun a bit. I went back inside and Lynnette asked, "Did they leave any hearts?" Duh. It's Valentine's this Sunday, so they would be doing a "heart attack," and sure enough there were some paper hearts taped to our door. Great. Lynnette made me feel extra bad: I may have scared the kids.



About 10 minutes later, I got a call from Andy, asking: was I mad at Ammon for doorbell ditching us? Ha! No way! I thought it was funny, and they got away from me just barely without me finding out who it was. He said they thought I was mad about it, and even Boone (their adult driver) thought I might have been upset, especially when I reached out to slap the car. I kept reiterating how I really thought it was funny and I thought they did a great job.

Great. I'm intimidating the neighborhood kids.

A bit later, someone came to the door and rang the bell; I went out thinking again it was Olivia but it was actually the boys who ditched us earlier. I am glad; it gave us all a chance to laugh about the whole thing.

It feels great that they'd value and trust us enough to give us a heart attack; it's doubly cool for them to come back later, just to check back in person and make sure everything's cool.

The coat off his back

Would you give someone the coat off your back?

I've stopped on the side of the road and spent a few minutes to help someone who ran out of gas, but I have never given someone anything like the coat I was using in the middle of a Utah winter.

I heard about this story through a short Twitter post, and I had to ask to get more of the story from the observer, so he gave me a summary. My first thought was: I've got to get more details! But the truth is that I don't need to know any more; in fact, more details would actually detract from the telling. After reading it, I had to read it over again from the start. And that's the strength of this man's act: it's simply stated, but it's powerful because it seems like such a sacrifice and it's so spontaneous.

Along with those details, the observer wrote: "I think the leader was particularly pleased that nobody really noticed or made a big deal out of it." That's another subtle point to this story: such actions are so grand that it would almost be demeaning for someone to offer the giver a compliment and recognize what he did. That type of recognition is fine for some things, but in this case I think it would be a cause of embarrassment; this was done to help someone else in a big way, and this bit of heaven that he brought transcends any kind of recognition we could offer.

---

After a scouting function, one of the leaders stayed and talked for a while with one of the families. Finally, he took off his coat and gave it to the man, who said, "But what will you wear?"

"I have other coats at home."

"What about on your way home?"

"It's OK. I'm used to the cold."

The recipient expressed his thanks, and they each went their own way.

---

a gift of decorations

Last weekend was Olivia's birthday, and the older neighbor girls decided to give her a surprise: they crepe-papered our house, forked our lawn with balloons attached, and they dropped off some edible gifts (Olivia's favorite).









What a fantastic, fun gift! They spent valuable late-night time and energy to secretly leave something that we'd stumble upon in the morning. I daresay it's not everyone who has friends that make such a creative effort to celebrate their birthday. That is loving kindness.

And you can tell it was appreciated!

Great Christmas Gifts

Christmas is a grand time of goodwill and an unavoidable reminder to pay attention to one another. The best gifts are the happy surprises: they demonstrate that someone really was paying attention and cares, and that's one of those indescribable feelings that are the reason for the season. Unfortunately, this is rare; it seems like every company under the sun is telling you that their product will make "the perfect gift!". It's good any time we make an effort to show we're thinking of someone; it's great when those small gifts are things that take time, effort, and thoughtful consideration.

Here are seven of the gifts from this past holiday that left an impression on me.

• A cookbook, containing the giver's favorite recipes. Many of them are family recipes, and her family probably appreciated them most. But she's well known as a cook in our neighborhood, and it's a very personal gift.
• A lesson book for family nights. This one must have taken some time: she put in a lesson for every week of the year (in plastic inserts for every page, with a recipe index and a table of contents); each lesson looks like it will keep the attention of our kids for at least a few minutes. And it has our family's picture on the cover, nicely done.
• A homemade DVD containing a religious song with pictures and video. It's not as personal, but I know how much time it takes to create one of these, so I definitely appreciate this.
• A tiny nativity scene. My wife mentioned off-handedly to someone how she collects nativity scenes, and so this person gave her one. That is one of those pleasant surprises.
• Cookie dough! OK, so this is our neighbor gift to others, but it's my personal favorite. You can give it as a lump of dough, or you can spoon it out into balls that they can cook immediately or freeze and use later. (It's very cool: you can pop frozen cookies into the oven and follow the same instructions!) Just remember that instructions are a nice touch (oops). What can I say? Warm, home-baked cookies turn me on. And it seems like there's a bit more love involved when you know someone put it together in their own kitchen.
• Holiday cards, especially newsletters. These are small things that take time to put together, but they're nice; and although I don't remember many of the details from the newsletters, I do recall who sends them with special fondness.
  
• Almost four days' worth of meals cooked by my father-in-law when we visited them in Arizona! He's an executive chef, so you can imagine how we enjoyed them. But you'll always appreciate any effort that a host makes to make your visit enjoyable.

What were your especially enjoyable gifts?