Today I used  a 30% off coupon at Kohl’s, plus only purchased 60%-70% clearance toddler clothes. These will be donated to the Women’s Care Center.  I made a promise to God at Christmas that if the Kohl’s mailer had a 30% off coupon, not 15 or 20%, I’d purchase cute outfits for the little children whose mothers have little-to-nothing.

I had a lovely conversation with the clerk who has three children with autism. People have so many needs in our world. The clerk and I thought it kind of eerie that I’ve had two 30% off coupons mailed, in a row, since I made the promise.  To get a 30% off coupon is rare.

All of us can do little things to show love, one to another.  It doesn’t have to be monetary donation or item donation.  Have you thought about YOU being the donation?  We can be a donation to people just by smiling, or by thanking people.

We can “donate to”, for example, a terse business owner such as I encountered the other day. “How exquisite the shade of orchid in that sweater you are wearing!  It makes your face light up beautifully to remind customers: Spring on the way!” This cost-free donation registered in her mind.  When I left, she made it a point to cheerily call out, “Thank you for being here. I really hope you have a very good day!”

However, for monetary type donations, there are ways I can scrimp in order to give.  For one thing, I rarely eat out and do not buy soda pop or hot drinks.  I eat meals based upon what is on sale in the grocery. Thankfully, due to constant pain, I have not much appetite.  Regardless, making donations makes me happier than buying food.  We all know where the bulk of food goes after we eat it, in 12 short hours; but cute clothes for needful children will be sweetly worn time and again.  God provides! (And The Joyful Hermit eats quite well, as you will see along this venture, when I share more hermit recipes.)

The next errand was taking my car, Stella Maris [Star of the Sea], to St. Greg the Great, the auto mechanic [what I call him for he is so honest and kind].  While Greg took Stella Maris to the tire shop, I spoke with an 82-year-old man waiting for Greg to work on his car.  The old man told me how his neighborhood has gone down in the 45 years he has lived in his home.  His tone turned sour.

But I remembered to choose joy and reached into him with a smile and encouraging words, and his mood up-righted.  Even now I treasure his smile and teary eyes when we talked about how good to have worked hard and kept up his property despite the neighbors not working and on drugs.  He has lived right-side-up.

Right is always right.  We must do, ourselves, what is right to do, no matter what others may do or not do.  And we must do what is right without thinking too much of others doing wrong.  Thinking about all the wrong in the world deflates our joy. It is pointless.

I had a couple more errands and pondered the simple, inexpensive donation of spreading joy and uplift in most any conversation, bringing smiles to people’s faces and love to their hearts. Plus, since errands are a necessity of life as we now live it, I also make sure that I do any extra walking possible. May as well benefit from easy, free exercise.

Note: Please forgive me for confiding an act of charity; we are not to let the right hand know what the left hand is doing, nor boast of charity, you know. But my motive is simply to share an idea of how God provides ways that, even on a tight budget, we can give useful items to those in greater need.  Clearance items and discount coupons can be gifts to us to use, too. Take another 30% off this clearance price: a child will have a lovely outfit…and I got bargains.