Small Acts That Shine Bright!

This past week I was able to able to participate in another service project with Labor of Love USA. This time I headed to Oklahoma City to help a blind woman named Michelle and a man named W.C. who has Cerebral Palsy. In the grand scheme of things our projects appear to be big undertakings, but if looked at closely they small task accomplished by men and women sharing their sparkle. One by one these small task equal great things. On Share Your Sparkle Day…and in the Making Your Mark workshops station, we ask girls to think about how they can share their talents. Our goal at the Shimmer, Sparkle, Shine Project is to not only raise self self-esteem of young girls, but work at making each young sparkler realize they have individual worth and many talents to share with others. We help them realize that their talents not only make them sparkle, but can help bring out the sparkle in others.

Let me share a few ways my friends and I shared our sparkle with Michelle and W.C.  

 

Cindy and Monica (aka: Food Fairies) used their cooking talents to keep us fed. 

Annette, a newbie with LOL, brought these beautiful baby hats she made for the infant crisis center we were working with. 

Judy and Liane handed washed donated baby toys before they were taken to the center.

 Our first morning..many hands made light work with the yard work we completed at Michelle's house. We raked, trimmed trees, broke branches down for bagging and then hauled everything away. For one person this could of been a big job, but with everybody stepping up in one capacity or another, we were done pretty quickly and moving on to the next project. 

Chris used his talents to extend W.C.'s sidewalk with cement pavers. This "small" job is going to alleviate some of the difficulties W.C. has getting his wheelchair into the front door. 

One of the biggest ways we Share our Sparkle is by talking and giving of our hearts and time. Dave and his family are amazing examples of both of these things. 

Here I am with many others staining the fence in W.C.'s backyard. He loves spending time back there looking over his garden, so we wanted to make it as pleasing as possible. Most of us had never stained a piece of wood before, but we just go for it and do our best. 

While taking a lunch break from staining the fence, we headed back to Michelle's house for a few minutes. Play time with her dogs led to Liane giving Michelle's dogs a bath. Michelle was utterly surprised when Liane offered to do such a thing. Not only that, but I stayed and watched TV with her while I ate my pizza. She can't see much, so she listens and on occasion asked what was happening on the TV.  Washing a dog and watching TV are such basic things, but at the right time, those basic things can make a word a difference in someone's life. Just remember sparkles, giving your time to others is the best way you can share your sparkle. 

This fine "young man" hiding his face above..who shall remain nameless..decided to "experiment" as he calls it. He started by making a fleece blanket from a kit, then he "experimented" with quilting and made the fabulous piece above. At most event we leave a blanket or quilt with the people we are circling with love. Most of the time we have women from all over the country that send blankets or gather and make them in the different cities we are visiting. In Oklahoma it was not the blankets of these women from Labor of Love that were given out, it was the blankets tied by our fabulous mystery man that were given as gifts. He not only fixed Michelle's ceiling fan and installed a doggie door, he made her a blanket. He was hesitant to share his new talent, but we're very thankful he did and Michelle is very thankful he did too and the tears of joy were evidence.

Many of my friends are not pictured and some of those same friends worked on a much bigger project, but the point of this post is that Making Your Mark doesn't require trips across the country, nor does it need a group of people work on a big project...it starts with you sparkles. Don't ever hesitate to share your sparkle and leave a trail of sparkle wherever you go!