Cookies to Go: The kindness of strangers

For JL, no longer a stranger.

I woke up very early this morning to bake some cookie dough that I had prepared the day before.  I wanted to give some freshly baked homemade cookies to a woman, JL, who was two months ago, a stranger to me. 

I woke up way before the kids to bake these cookies and it wasn't hard to wake up to do it, because this woman, before we were acquaintances (I say we are this now) was completely wonderfully kind and warm to a stranger...me.

As an aside, I am a  good friend.  Many of my friends would call me a great friend.  When someone tells me they need something, or have a question for me, or want some advice cooking or otherwise, I always try to accommodate and do what I can to help them.  I do this for my FRIENDS.  I do this for the people who know me and love me.  I do these things for people whom I trust.

On the flip side, I hate asking for favors.  I hate asking people to do something for me if I can do it on my own, and loathe relying on the help of others.  I'd rather mess up doing it alone than ask for anyone's help.  Call it pride, call it stupidity, call it lameness but that is really what I'm about.  Ask ME for all the help you want, but I'm not likely to turn around and ask YOU for something.  I know.  It's weird. And lame.  Friends blast me all the time for it because I tend not to ask for favors in return.

However, as I was working on the book fair for Daughter #1's school, I volunteered for the book fair at Daughter #2's school, which was run by this woman, JL.  And I have volunteered for bookfairs at this same preschool four years in a row, and THIS year, the book fair was amazing.  With great books, great layout, fantastic decorations and it got me to thinking...I need some of this woman's ideas.  I need to pick her brain and I need to beg, borrow, or steal all the cool ideas she had for her book fair and put it into mine.

So timidly, shyly, cautiously, I asked JL, if I might perhaps borrow her theme, get some ideas from her, and possibly ask for a few moments of her time to talk about the book fair.  Her response to my questions was yes...take all of her ideas and just use them at my book fair.  She gave me resources, told me she'd give me any forms I wanted and essentially offered to give me her binder of all the things she did so that I could use it for my book fair.  I was to her, at that moment, nothing more than a volunteer at her book fair and she simply welcomed me and treated me like a good friend.  (And I did take a bunch of her ideas and put them into the book fair at Daughter #1's school.)

We are no longer strangers, and more like acquaintances making our way into friendship.  I wanted to treat her like a good friend and made her some cookies and I have to say...it felt really good.  Even though I was up at 6:25 AM trying to bake, it was worth it.  And her face when I delivered them to her at her son's classroom was one of sheer elation and excitement over cookies. (I later received a funny text from her confessing that she had already eaten 4.) 

Doing something kind for a friend or someone you know is easy.  Doing something kind for a stranger or someone you don't know as well is slightly harder, but just as rewarding.  Thank you JL, for doing something kind for a stranger.

I baked two kinds of cookies for her box.  I prepared the dough the day before and all I had to do early in the morning was bake them off.

Crispy Chewy Oatmeal Toffee Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt

a box of these...turns strangers into friends

boxed up cookies