Bit #39: Finding That Girl~You Never Know When the Goodwill will hit you

Little Life Lesson and Bit of Grace 39: You never know when the mood will strike you to do good!

"Blessed are those who can give without remembering, and take without forgetting." ~Princess Elizabeth, Asquith Bibesco

{Editor's Note: Yay for Whitney! Last week she challenged us to pay it forward once a week during the holiday season. Bravo for her pay it forward deed. I did mine too.}

This week I had an epiphany in the clearance racks at Hollister.Did y'all know it's Christmastime?

Well, I went to the mall Saturday and it was just beautiful and everyone was so polite and nobody flipped anyone off or cursed anyone out and nobody stole any parking spaces and I just felt like I was right in the middle of a Thomas Kincaide painting.

Except for not.

It was the craziest thing I've ever seen - and I've worked in retail at Christmastime y'all. There's almost nothing I haven't seen - all in the name of getting a cashmere sweater at 50% off. (By the way I love cashmere, and there's a cashmere sweater on my Christmas list if y'all wanted to get me something. Just saying.)

Anyway, back to my epiphany.

So, I was in Hollisters and I generally hate this store because it's all kinds of loud and the associates are all approximately a size 00 and 16 years old and they all look at me like I'm a walking member of the viral plague entering into their store, but I was on a mission to find some jeans for my sister and I had it under good authority that they had some on clearance. So I walk into the store and make my way to the clearance section and I'm seriously about to faint from the close proximity that I have to every other shopper in the tristate area as they are ALL in the store with me at that very minute, when I all but snapped the head off the sales clerk who couldn't answer my questions and also appeared more ambivalent about her job by the second.

That's when it hit me.

My epiphany, I mean.

All week I've been worried about trying to get done Christmas shopping and stressing over finding everyone the perfect gifts that they'll just love and talk about for years that I neglected something. Remember my post from last week? Yeah, I believe I set out a challenge and then totally ignored it myself. I hadn't done a single shred of anything for anyone else all week long. Go me.

Anyway, I realized that while this girl may not have had more than a leaf of lettuce for lunch she was most likely doing the best that she could during what was probably her first experience working a holiday season in retail. So, I walked my butt out of the store and up to Chik Fil A where I purchased a few $5 gift cards. I pulled out a notecard and envelope from the stash in my purse, inserted the gift cards and a little note wishing a Merry Christmas, and took it back to Hollister. I handed it to a very bewildered looking young man behind the cashier's stand and walked out. My hope is that the employees were able to use these gift cards to relax a little bit on break, because it's stressful to do what they do at any time of the year - much less Christmastime. It wasn't a huge gesture, but hopefully it's something that made a small difference to their workday and holiday season.

Did you have the opportunity to pay it forward this week?

Love,

Whitney