Simple gifts and being Inconvenienced

I have a friend who is an interior designer. She is actually quite fabulous, although she would never let you know that. Her clients spend ungodly amounts of money and time for her to come to their homes (many of them second - or third - homes) to make them beautiful. She doesn't just carry a paint deck and move furniture around; she helps design elements from the ground up. On more than one occasion, I've been thumbing through a magazine (or book!) at the bookstore or grocery check-out line and happen upon a photo shoot of one of her incredibly beautiful, livable, designed homes. She of course never tells anyone about these fabulous national features ahead of time. My calls or texts of "OH MY GOSH LOOK WHAT I JUST FOUND!" are generally met with a laugh and a humble response. She really is fabulous.

This week, that same fabulous friend traveled 1,200 miles to help someone she barely knows; someone she briefly crossed paths with 15 years ago. But there was a need...a house that had been devastated by soot in complete interior renovation. She squeezed two days into her already busy schedule to help someone in need of direction and hope. No monetary compensation, no magazine coverage. Just kindness. 
I've been thinking about this scenario over and over and I keep coming back to two things: 

1. I wonder how often we take our gifts and talents for granted and don't truly consider how easy it is to bless someone with what comes naturally to us on a daily basis.
   
2. Helping someone in their time of need is never going to come at a time we deem as convenient to our schedules so we have to allow (or maybe even force) ourselves to be inconvenienced for the sake of others.

The most common request I receive is for ideas on how to show kindness to others as a birthday celebration. I can post 100 ideas and there are always emails asking for a few more. We can and should be creative in our pursuance to consider the needs of others. But I can't help thinking that the very things we do every day, the careers we've chosen, the hobbies we enjoy, the habits we are inclined toward, may be the easiest and most overlooked vehicles for kindness. Those things we brush off as "no big deal" ARE a big deal to those of us who don't know how to do whatever it is that YOU do.  It could be a love of baking or a job in banking. There are countless people who are in need of the gifts you naturally bring into the world and who would be incredibly blessed to receive the fruits of your labor. And if we wait for a convenient time to do these things, we will miss every opportunity to spread kindness to those who need it most.  
Today, as my friend travels home to her family and clients, I can almost picture a trail of imaginary glitter she's left in her wake. The sparkle of kindness doesn't evaporate when the giver is gone. It's tiny specks remain embedded in the very fibers of the place where the generous transaction occurred. So inspiring.

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