26 Acts of Kindness - Day 21

For today's act of kindness we honored Grace McDonnell, age 7. We actually got to Grace's name last weekend, but I had an idea of what I wanted to do for her that required a little trip, so we didn't have the chance to do it until today.

Young Grace, or Gracie as she was called by many, seems to be the quintessential girly-girl. =) As I was reading about her I couldn't help but think she had so much in common with my daughter.

Gracie's favorite colors were pink and purple and she loved anything sparkly. But she also had a spitfire personality and loved to tease her older brother. She was a fashionista and was having a ball learning both dance and gymnastics. She was the "light" of their family - her mother shared her last memory of Gracie: the morning of her death, as she drove away in the school bus and blew kisses. And the weekend after, as her mother had just taken a shower and came out to find a peace sign (that Gracie always loved to draw) and the words, "Grace loves Mommy" etched on the bathroom mirror.

Grace loved art and especially painting. When her parents first saw their daughter's tiny white casket their hearts plummeted, but then they saw a white canvas waiting for beauty. They took Sharpies and, with Grace's brother, they filled the white with all of the things Grace loved: ice cream cones, cupcakes, pink ribbons... and the beach.

If there was something that Grace loved more than anything else it was the beach. She adored her summer vacations spent with her family on Martha's Vineyard. She loved lighthouses, seagulls, hunting for seashells, and building sand castles.

In her eulogy the priest compared her to both a lighthouse and a seashell. Little Grace would be the light guiding her loved ones now. And just like a seashell, the memory of Grace would the the beautiful remains of something that was gone too quickly.

After the funeral, and despite their grief, Grace's parents went out and did their own act of kindness. At the restaurant where they ate that afternoon they paid for every customer who came in that day to have a cupcake in Grace's honor.

For Grace's Act of Kindness I felt I needed to go to the beach. The Pacific is just over a short hour drive from our home. So I decided to take my kids and their friend, who were all off of school for MLK Day, to the Oregon Coast for the day. We spent part of the day in Tillamook - eating cheese and ice cream - I'm sure Gracie would approve of that. And then we drove up to my favorite beach in Oregon - Cannon Beach.

My idea for today's act of kindness was based on two things. First: I knew Gracie loved hunting for seashells, but I have a feeling, had she ever been to an Oregon beach she would have LOVED hunting for Japanese floats.

Japanese floats are glass spheres that were commonly used to keep fishermen's nets and other gear afloat in decades past. They were most commonly used in Asia, and have a habit of washing ashore in the Pacific Northwest (following the tsunami we actually had a huge cement Japanese dock wash ashore here last year). The floats come in a variety of colors, and are beautiful treasures if you are lucky enough to find one. They are becoming less and less common to find anymore because most fishermen are now using plastic floats.

The second basis for this act of kindness is this: As the number of floats washing ashore dwindled one local glass-blowing artist, displaying his own act of kindness, decided to do something about it. He went about creating thousands of glass floats and having "float fairies" hide them along the stretches of beach surrounding Lincoln City, OR. So now, people come from all over and walk the miles of beaches in hopes of finding a beautiful glass float left behind from the float fairy.

I have a feeling Gracie would have adored searching for glass floats, and would have been thrilled to ever find one. So while we were out today I picked up a Japanese Float (they can be found in local souvenir shops), along with two shells - one pink and one purple - for Gracie's favorite colors. I attached an Act of Kindness note to the float and on the back explained that whomever found it should take it home and then pay it forward.

Then we drove to Cannon Beach. I chose Cannon Beach because it has a lighthouse - something that Grace also loved. I found a nice spot that was sheltered from the waves, but was visible enough to be seen by people passing by. I left the float and the two seashells in the sand there, with the lighthouse in view... just waiting for someone to find it.

I hope that Grace enjoyed our act of kindness in her honor today and that, like the lighthouse, she guides the right person to her special float.

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared." - Buddha