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Tracey and Myriam, two dear souls who know how to put me back together again

One of the highlights from my trip to LA was getting the chance to hang out with my soulsisters Myriam Joseph and Tracey Clark. I love these women so much, I can’t tell you. They’re the kind of friends who can’t wait five minutes to ask you the real questions about what’s going on with you, how are you really, tell me what’s up. The sum total of our dinner plan was to get seated someplace as quickly as possible so we could dive in to the most real and soulful conversation.

The next day Tracey came back to the hotel and we marveled at how much serious ground we’d covered. It was like a Soul Garage Repair/Tune-Up in one and a half hours flat, no lines, no waiting. And then I told her about all the things we hadn’t talked about yet–all the tiny little projects that the Soulsisters Unite Kindness Fund had covered with the money we made from our Etsy store at Christmas.

Well, Tracey just loved those stories. And the whole idea of kindness work in general. She told me a couple of stories about her own forays with her kids into the world of caring about others and feeling so charged by the way her kids were totally into it. Two days later she called me with a really great idea.

“Jen, you know all the giveaways happening for bloggers?” I said yes, of course, though being an ad-free blog, I’m not usually on those lists. “What would happen if instead of just running contests where we give that stuff to each other, we found a way to get that stuff in the hands of someone who really, really needed it? Like a kindness giveaway! Where the point is to give it, not just get it?”

Of course, I loved that idea so much I couldn’t stand it. And I know Tracey. As a Nintendo ambassador and enthusiast for all things HP, she always has some incredible things to giveaway. There’s no doubt in my mind that some mother is sitting in an oncology waiting room right now who would give her right arm for her antsy, anxious five year old to be completely engaged solving problems and chilling out in front of a handheld DS Lite while mom processes the bigger picture. Sometimes that’s just the kind of thing that gets you through.

And then the subversive part of me got really energized, thinking about how we can take corporate interest in reaching the blogosphere and turn it into a huge exercise in creative and soulful giving. Wouldn’t that be so great?

Well, Trace called yesterday to say her Kindness Giveaway is on. And I would love it if this community would help her find the just right little girl (and ulitmately mom!) to gift this DS Lite–someone who could not even imagine such a treat could possibly be in her future. So please, if you can, go here to cheer her on or offer your own two cents about who that sweet girl might be.

And I’ll just put it out there, if you are a blogger who is “on the list” to get free stuff, why not run a contest next time where the winner gets to give something away and tell us all later about how she did it & how it felt? Wouldn’t it be great if this kindness thing really knew no bounds? Even in marketing, in business and all those places where we assume it has to be about the bottom line. What do you think?

This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 10:03 am and is filed under Journal, birth, ds lite giveaway, how to avoid an episiotomy, kindness giveaway, kindness revolution, myriam joseph, nintendo, olive you birth project, soulsisters unite kindness fund, tracey clark. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.