Homelesscide=Life On The Streets”

2009-04-30T15:55:55-06:00

HHi d_funkwriter here and I gotta say this is an awesome idea! As some one whose very life at the moment relies on RAKs from (mostly) strangers, this is a way to both thank them, show my gratitude, and inspire others to commit Acts. I am homeless, and in a way the new face of homelessness..not an active addict or alcoholic, or severely mentally ill, just trapped by health, economics, and circumstance…with a large dose of bureaucracy thrown in for good measure. I have been so blessed to be the recipient of so many Acts of good faith, from money while standing on the side of the road panhandling, to people taking me in THIER HOME!! for showers and meals and laundry. This is Baltimore we are talking about, it is hard town for the disenfranchised and alone, and the trust shown me by some folks is nothing short of miraculous. I feel that to keep the flow of goodwill I to must help out others, there is always someone worse off, so when the Starbucks folks give me a bag of out of date pastry, I go out and share it with others. When I see someone asking for change. I cannot stop and judge, I just give if and when I can. And it keeps coming back around, I have been a finder of cellphones recently, and the first thing I do is to call the most frequently listed numbers and leave a message asking them to contact the owner of the phone and call me to arrange return….AFTER!! arrangements rae made and/or the phone is returned I mention that I am homeless, and in every case people are amazed that I returned the phone, instead of selling it. I tell them I reap more good karma from doing the right thing than if I had profited from it…and in every case someone has handed me cash or bought me a meal and some food or clothing. One man was in New Jersey before we made contact, and he wanted to send me money to ship the phone, I told him to call FedEX and prepay the shipping..it’s easier…He wsa so quiet I though we had lost the connection…LOL..He sent a $50.00 postal money order to me daughter’s house. I write a blog at http://www.homelesscide.blogspot.com journaling my experiences and my thoughts and feelings, some one who reads my blog sent me this sites address. I hope to be able to share and to inspire some of the folks I know to come here and join and participate….the concept works….......Dave

A Smile

2009-06-23T13:20:32-06:00

My friend wasn’t feeling well. To help brighten her day, I made her a Feel Better card, and attached it to some pictures of her kiddo. I dropped it off at her door - anonymously. It’s not about the thanks - it’s about doing for others to help them feel better.

Sharing Ideas

2009-04-18T07:06:39-06:00

I shared with someone on a plane two ideas. 1) How to share thoughts and love with their future child via email. 2) RakTrak.com

Regarding how to share thoughts and love with their child, I described how I have an email account that is set up for our 2 year old son. When our son is older and able to read, I will share the emails with him. The emails contain words of praise, love, and thoughts I want to share with him.

Regarding RakTrak.com, there was obvious excitement about RakTrak.com from this nice person after I described it to him. He said he would look it up for sure.

He thanked me with a huge smile on his face. He reiterated that he is excited about trying out those two things; emailing his future child and RakTrak.com.

Wallet Stolen and no job

2009-04-10T14:12:46-06:00

A particular person had been on my heart for a while and I felt that I should reach out to her. I walked into one of our local grocery stores and as I was finishing up there she was crying. Her wallet along with over $400 cash and her cards had been stolen from her. She is currently unemployed and her boyfriend is recovering from surgery without pay. Times are really tough for them. I went home and talked to my husband about it and I really felt like I should do something and prayed about it. I called to check on her and told her we had something for her. I met up with her and gave her a card. She was thankful and hadn’t even opened it yet. My husband and I had been blessed with a promotion and a bonus and wanted to pay it forward. We wanted to help her out so we put money in an envelope for her with a nice card. She called me in tears so thankful for what we had done. She said it meant the world to her that we would do that for them. I feel that we are the ones that have been blessed with them.

Maimonides’ degrees of Charities

2009-04-01T19:09:02-06:00

I recall from my days of Hebrew school the Jewish concept of Tzedekah, or charity. There are roughly 8 degrees of giving based on the teachings of Maimonides, each one greater than the next:
1-Giving to the poor unwillingly
2-Giving to the poor gladly with a smile
3-Giving to the poor after being asked
4-Giving to the poor before being asked
5-Giving to the poor you don’t know but who knows you
6-Giving to the poor who you know but does not know you
7-Giving to the poor and neither benefactor nor recipient know each other.
8-Helping a person in such a way that they are no longer in need of help.

I was drawn to this site because of this teaching long ago.
I look forward to being able to give and receive your cards in the near future.

Clean up after yourself

2009-04-07T17:07:04-06:00

I can’t take credit for this but my best friend and her rather large family did this with awesome results! They were on a mini family vacation and rented a condo for a few days. They were sharing the condo with another family so they were at full capacity with the majority of them being under the age of 12. The last day they were there, they stripped the beds and washed all the sheets and towels, mopped the floors, cleaned the bathrooms… you get the picture. Then they left a card with a tip for the housekeeping crew explaining that they had had such a wonderful time that they wanted to share some of their pleasure by doing the majority of the work for them. It turns out that housekeeping was one very overworked young woman who had pretty much lost her faith in people. My friend’s act of kindness literally changed this young woman’s life. A woman she had never met and probably never will. This woman emailed my friend and told her that her faith in the goodness of people had been restored and that she was going to look for opportunities to do something for other people. How awesome is that?!!

Use of a car pass

2009-04-01T18:50:54-06:00

We knew we had a long drive ahead of us, with two kids and lots of miles between where we were and home. Someone at the party overheard us and offered the use of his pass for the tolls to get us home quickly and without having to wait in the long cash lines. We gladly took it not knowing how much easier it was to travel with it. We were able to get off the toll road if we needed to (those with kids understand this immediate need!) without looking for a rest stop. We are mailing it back tomorrow.

Pass on the code for Redbox rentals

2009-03-20T22:13:48-06:00

Lot’s of people use Redbox to rent movies. Redbox kiosks are located at McDonalds, many Walmart stores, some gas stations and I am sure there are many more locations besides these. My sister and her family love Redbox for the convience that it offers and I have become a fan as well. Redbox offers many free rental codes through many different ways, one being through McDonalds (when they are doing the Redbox promotion). What is cool is that you can redeem the code that comes with your meal purchase and then after you have used it you can pass it along to someone else because the codes work off different credit card numbers. Once the person that you give the code to enters the free promo code they pay nothing for that night and enjoy a free movie whereas they would have had to pay for it. I did this when I went to return my movies at a local kiosk and I had about 5 codes that I had already used. Since I could no longer use them I passed them along to the person behind me in line and asked them to do the same when they are done with the codes so that someone else may enjoy a free movie rental off the kindness of others.

End of life gifts

2009-03-17T18:09:11-06:00

A woman whom I met on Facebook has a husband who is at the end stage of liver disease.

I created a Facebook group and invited folks to send cards to him.

I started to send cards to him regularly.

I’m a novice at creatig websites but I created a website for him, hoping a community will gather there for him to “see/meet” as if it’s in his backyard. He cannot walk anymore, hence folks will have to go to him. He doesn’t use the computer either, so real cards would be more meaningful than ecards….although any form of connection would be appreciated.

Here’s the website: http://wwwSendTarkACardToday.com

I hope a lot of strangers will pick him as their random act of kindness for the day.

It is a gift to be touched by strangers especially at the end of life….
It is a very inexpensive gift anyone can give, isn’t it?

www.findnicolevienneau.com

2009-03-10T17:32:01-06:00

If you’ve visited Syria, or lived/photographed the Bedouin. Helping to share what you discovered and dialogue on it would be useful in helping us find a lost loved one.

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