Because We're All in this Together

I am so blessed. Everyday, all around me, I am constantly blessed. 

I have a wonderful husband who loves me. I wake up each morning to the most amazing coffee and my cup already sitting next to the coffee pot. It may seem small, but to me, it's true love and it blesses my day.

My cup overflows from the love I receive from my sweet Mason. A tender, sweet eight year old son who smoothers me with hugs and kisses every chance he gets and can't leave the room without adding, "I love you so much mommy."

The support and love I have from friends humbles me on a daily basis. Friends new and old who pour into my soul seeds of encouragement and accountability.

And in this age of technology, I am blessed by some of my online friends. I've been a member of the site TriangleMommies.com (TM) for over seven years now and this site and it's amazing members have blessed me in so many ways.

TriangleMommies is an online community of women from all over the Triangle who meet together online (and sometimes, in real life (IRL)) to offer support, advice and help on this mom road so many of us walk. We're a community made up of so many different types of women and although we may not always see eye to eye, we have one common core - we're all moms or want to be a mom. 

I've walked some of my darkest days with women on TM. Losing a son. Depression. Secondary Infertility. And every step of the way, I've been loved and supported by the women of TM, many of whom I've never even met IRL.

One of the most lovely things I've seen TM do is to have members leave gifts outside another TM's house when they need a pick-me-up. These are little "fairies" who spread cheer to other women who often need it desperately. The absolute beauty of it all is that the women who deliver the gift have no idea to whom they're delivering and the women who receive a gift don't know who brought it; it's completely anonymous. And even more, the women who give are spending their own money and time to bring a gift and bless a woman that they don't even know. In the words of Martha Stewart, "It's a beautiful thing."

I'm fortunate to have been on the receiving end of these TM gifts on several occasions, but the ones that mean the most to me are ones that come at the same time every year around August 21; the day we said goodbye to Robert. These women remember me and the pain I've experienced and they remember it every year. You have no idea how much that means to me. 

If you look around and notice the world around you (or even those people directly within your sphere of influence) there are opportunities all the time to bless others. It may mean just being available when someone needs an ear to listen. Maybe it's helping a mom with a screaming kid at Harris Teeter by loading up her car while she takes care of her kids. Or perhaps it's grabbing lunch for someone in back of you in line at Chick-Fil-A. Ways that we can bless people and expect nothing in return.

We get so busy with our own lives that it's easy to miss opportunities to bless others. I challenge you today to be more aware. Ask God to give you a spirit to notice people and ways that you can help. These "divine appointments" are all around us if we just take notice.

Soon enough, you'll become so aware of ways to bless others that you'll come to expect them. And in time, you'll find that you are really the one who's truly blessed.