Day 94 – 2.02.94

I was randomly watching videos today on YouTube and browsing reddit. One of the posts on reddit asked a question on why be nice to others when it is not reciprocated. It is an interesting question and something that made me think. If you are being nice for recognition, are you doing it for the right reasons? A couple of videos I watched today had kids go up to random strangers to ask it they could have the leftovers as they were hungry and in the videos the strangers would give the food they had or buy food for the kids. It was to highlight how so many children in the USA go without food and it made me think a bit. Another video had people ask complete strangers for a dollar and homeless people. The homeless people would give what they could even when they had so little. I never really carry cash around with me and when people ask me for money I rarely give them any. In the past I have bought food for random strangers on the street when they told me they were hungry but it is not something I always do. I have bought lunches and dinners for people at restaurants in the past and try and do it anonymously. Kindness to others should be the norm and not some sort of weird behaviour that is the exception. I am lucky that I am surrounded by people who are genuinely kind and help out others without the thought of getting something in return except for the joy of making someone else happy. I have received flowers and gift baskets from friends post-surgery and I appreciate the gestures and the thoughts.

1.) My mother-in-law is someone that is always thinking of others. She enjoys giving gifts to others and it seems that she always tries to think of occasions to give gifts. The kids get gifts for any minor holiday, Valentine’s day, St. Patrick’s day, Thanksgiving, third Friday of the month….she will buy the kids little treats to make them smile. It is something that you can do as a grandmother, but she use to do it as well for her daughters before they had kids. My in-laws have always been very thoughtful and generous with time and small gestures. Today she came by to give a gift from her and my sister-in-law for post-surgery recovery. I received some clothing from one of my favorite stores as well as some lounge wear because none of my pants fit anymore. I have lost 35 pounds since last August and a lot of my clothing is a bit baggier on me now. When I look in the mirror I can see that the impact that the last year has had. I am grateful to be surrounded by family that do small things because they care about others.

2.) I have a pretty good relationship at a few stores in Sudbury where they will bend certain rules for me and give me discounts and are just genuinely nice. The owners like me and love Melanie and treat us well. Melanie has had minor bike issues while biking and the owner of one of the stores happened to be around and he helped out Melanie in the parking lot with his bike. We frequent this local bike store often and they know our styles and what we like. Whenever I go into the store and say I need something for Melanie they know what she likes and are very good at identifying things for her. My mother in law wanted to get me something from the store, so she called and asked them for assistance. Since it is only curbside pickup now, it is difficult to shop for things like that. The store was able to put some things together and bring it out to show my mother-in-law some options that they knew I would like. I appreciate the time that they took to go through their current stock and identify what I would like. I love the clothing that I received and appreciate the relationship that we have built with the store over the last 20 years.

3.) Eating has been pretty smooth, but tonight at dinner was the first time where I had an issue. I normally do not drink any liquids while I eat because I was told not to. I take some small sips now and then to try and it has not been an issue. Tonight though while I was eating I was thirsty and took a drink of water. Immediately I had some issues, where it was like hiccups and my diaphragm constricting. I had to go sit down and just relax and stop eating. Melanie has done a lot of cleaning up after the dinners and making sure things are running well. She ran out this morning to pickup some food for breakfast and she is the one that picks up food for dinner when we need to. I appreciate that she has done a lot of this without complaint and is picking up a lot of the slack currently.

Quoc Hao