I think there are a lot of cliches about changing perspective in life (hindsight 20/20, rosy retrospection, and the more I know, the less I understand...) that would say that our experiences change the way we see things.
And that's true, almost always.
Except for one thing.
For as long as I can remember (at least since I was 14), I have had a theory that there are three types of people in the world. There are fun makers, fun havers and fun takers.
The fun maker is making fun all the time. You know the type. Bringing snacks on a road trip and coming up with the best car games. Just really emitting fun and making it happen. The fun haver will partake in what the maker is doing, but isn't going to bring the party themselves. And then there are the fun takers - the type of person that can just suck the life out of the fun. They're not in the mood, so you're not allowed to be in the mood.
My brother, Duke, has been a fun maker since the day he was born, even coming into the world at 25 weeks because he was just so eager to get the party started. When he was young, we used to joke that he couldn't go in to fragile stores or quiet places because he was this little ball of energy and he couldn't really contain himself. The kid is just a fun maker through and through.
And this weekend, on Easter, he brought fun straight to the beach in a big way.
We went to a sunrise service, then found ourselves posted up on the beach for the long haul. Duke decided he wanted to take all of his cash and fill up Easter eggs, then plant them on the beach for random kids to find.
So, we took his money and stuffed our emptied eggs and acted real sneaky like as we dropped them around the beach. Then, we sat back and watched as the cutiest little kiddoes started finding them.
They were happy enough to find eggs - who wouldn't be?! - but then, when they opened them up and found money in them, they were ecstatic. We were watching from afar as they started jumping up and down - then running around the beach, digging, searching for more eggs. It was like the best kind of pandemonium broke out on the beach as these kids realized that the Easter bunny had actually come to the beach, and he'd left them cash. It's like he was working with the Tooth Fairy or something!
And, best of all, not even the parents knew where it came from.
If that's not a fun maker at his best, I don't know what is.
As we were leaving the beach, one of the kid's dads stopped us and asked if we'd planted the eggs. We awkwardly said yes and he replied, "Well, that was such a great surprise. We're going to take the eggs and refill them for other kids to find."
And this was the perfect reminder that even $1 acts of kindness don't go unnoticed. Sometimes the big things make the biggest difference, but other times, it's the little things that go the furthest. Sometimes we have to go on trips and donate money and think big. But sometimes, we just have to eat the jelly beans out of our plastic eggs and fill them up with a little bit of love for someone else to find. Who knows? Maybe the next person will add a little bit more love, and before we know it, the world will be filled with fun-making, love-giving egg hiders.
We can only hope, my friends!
Happy day to you!