I’m no elephant.

I forgot on the 25th, but I remembered today. Those darn elephants never forget. Must be why I’m not one.

I love this idea of embodying the essence of Christmas on the 25th of each month. I have this total love affair with paying it forward. So even though I forgot to take action on the 25th specifically, I did it today. And I only share this to encourage you to do the same. In fact, I’ll tell you what I did. It might seem totally lame and not-at-all-helping-the-needy, but I’ll tell you my reasoning.

I was at Starbuck’s (sorry my coffee shop friends, but I was jonesin’ and they have a drive-thru), and I paid for the order of the person behind me. Now, she probably didn’t “need” for me to do that since she can obviously buy a freaking $4 cup of joe+sugar+milk. But it wasn’t about the $4. It was about looking in my rear view mirror and seeing a frown on her face. She didn’t smile at all as she sat in line. She didn’t even move her body or lips to any music that might have been playing. Maybe she was tired. Maybe…she was tired. Maybe she just needed to know that someone looked in a rear view mirror and decided that she was the one today. And maybe, I’m hoping, it moved her to do something for someone else. Maybe she let someone go in front of her in traffic. Maybe, I don’t know, maybe she just had a better morning.

So that’s it. It doesn’t have to be a big thing. When it used to take me a couple of weeks to put back my own $4 for a coffee splurge, I instead made a point of smiling my best, most genuine smile at the bus driver (Denver’s bus transportation system rocks, for you out-of-towners) every morning. It was what I could give, and I dished it out.

He probably thought I was a serial killer or something. I’m a sea of teeth when I smile.

Hmmm. Should have rethought that…

And now…quick change of gears. I’ve posted zero PODs for the past two days. Why? BECAUSE THEY’VE SUCKED. Eh. Sometimes, that’s just the way it goes. I am going to post last night’s pics, only here though, because the lighting was terrible and my skills were seriously lacking, but whatever. There’s a story to tell.

Remember this post? To expand the story a bit more, the Fish’s second basketball team is a 1st & 2nd-grade team. I’m not sure if the rec center purposely put him there due to his enthusiasm, but he is waaaaay younger than those other boys. And way smaller. But gosh he makes up for it in heart.

Hank got him his very own basketball last week, and I’m pretty sure he sleeps with it.

They had some stretching to do, but as you can see, he’s still barely able to keep his shoes tied.

He rocks out some fine push ups, though.

And…he’s off to dribble. Um…I don’t understand why school gyms use carpet. Can anyone explain this? It’s weird.

He still gets a little bouncy and then falls to the floor a lot. The bigger kids don’t do that. But you know what? It doesn’t even register with him. He’s cool that way.

So here’s the story. This kid here? He’s huge. Like, I’m surprised he doesn’t have a beard already. But his dad’s pretty tall, too, and one of the coaches.

He was not happy to be playing against Holden, the Mighty Pipsqueak.

Ooooh he looks tough. And what did my little Mighty Man do? Stuck his tongue out strategically and got busy.

Yeah baby. You stand your ground. (That kid scares me. They should not allow mothers to watch this part.)

(This next part’s ok.)

(Because he not only survived, he stole the ball. HA!)

(I was kind of silently rooting for him at that point, so I missed the picture.)

He looks like what I was thinking: “WHEW.”

However, after they practiced dribbling and bounce passing, they lined up for lay ups. And…what do we think happened next?

Shots went in.

Every time.

Seven in a row, in fact.

Yeah baby.

Now that, I will not forget.

And neither will that new teammate, I bet.

And by the way, here’s my inspiration today, from First Lady Michelle Obama:

“We should always have three friends in our lives—one who walks ahead who we look up to and follow; one who walks beside us, who is with us every step of our journey; and then, one who …we reach back for and bring along after we’ve cleared the way.”

Who’s in your rear view mirror?

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