It’s the Little Things

Last night I went back to my elementary school to volunteer at the Fun Fair.  I was at the ticket selling table and it was fun to see all the excited kids coming in, and all of the negotiations and pleadings of the kids as to how many tickets their parent was going to purchase for them.  Two little girls approached my table wanting to buy a wristband.  They each were clutching some folded up dollars but it wasn’t enough for the wristband for unlimited games that they wanted to buy.  They wandered off to the side with their aunt and I guess the negotiations commenced.  In a little while their aunt came back and purchased them each an unlimited game wristband.  Off they went to have fun.  Some time passed and one of our school parents approached the table with some carelessly folded money in his hand.  “I found this” he said.  I recognized it at once as the money that one of the little girls had been carrying.  He shrugged and left it on our table.  I considered taking it and running through the Fun Fair trying to find her, but I had a job to do there and quickly got busy again.  A little time passed, and then the little girl appeared in front of us again.

“I can’t find my money” she simply stated.  I smiled and pointed at the money on the table; she took it and off she went.

When my shift was over I went in search of the man who had turned in the money.  I figured it would make him happy to hear that the little girl had gotten her money back.  We chatted a minute and I told him that I have found money before, and while it is fun to find money that feeling is always tempered by feeling bad for the person who lost it.  He agreed and told me that one time he had found $20 and walked into the store near where he had found it, and he had donated it to a charity offering box that they had there.

I left the Fun Fair that night with my heart filled with a warm feeling.  What a wonderful encounter with a truly thoughtful and generous human being!  It was a Friday night well spent.