MISSION: Giving Grace

Sometimes, it only takes a few words of love to help us get through those moments of hurt, frustration, and loneliness in our lives.  Affiliated Agent K found just the way to share those words.

DATE:
Tuesday, 8 March 2011

OPERATIVE:
Affiliated Agent K

LOCATION:
91 Bus Route
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

TIME:
1 p.m.

I’ve been I’ve been waiting for a while to be able to complete my first mission. I’ve bought things in the past, but ended up giving them out in NOT so random acts of kindness, such as a thank you to a cashier at a crazy store around Christmas. Today, while at the Hallmark store, inspiration struck, so I’m proud to present my first mission.

I stopped by the Hallmark Store in Fifth Avenue Place to pick up some cards for recent family occurrences. While I was there, I saw the perfect card for a mission. The front read: “Grace gets in through the broken pieces, usually when we weren’t even looking for it.” I’ve found that to be so true in a recent past that’s been cluttered with some frustration and irritation, so I picked it up immediately. The next question became what to package with my card, so I wandered around the store for a while, hoping something would speak to me.

I’m pretty sure that the employees probably thought I was casing the joint for a robbery or something equally as nefarious, because several times I was asked if I needed any help. I didn’t want to offer up my plans, in case I decided to leave the gift in a nearby place and one of the employees was my recipient, so I kept looking solo.

Finally, I realized that usually, when people are in need of grace, they’re also in need of chocolate. “Bingo,” I thought, “there’s the Sarris rack!” In an effort to keep the package relatively guilt-free, I picked up the new Pretzel Slims: Sarris’ chocolate covered pretzels with only 100 calories in the package. Perfect. Next, I wandered to the Post-It note section, where again, I found perfection in the form of Post-It notes that said “Random Acts of Kindness Never Go Out of Style.” Finally, at the cash register were adorable little bags of Jelly Belly Jelly Beans. I bought them all with a beautiful orange and yellow bag that I hoped would remind the lucky recipient of brighter days to come, and set off to combine my gifts.

I sat at the Fifth Avenue Place food court and wrote my card. It quickly became obvious that I would be pretty apparent leaving the gift there. So, once I was finished, I wandered around downtown looking for a good place to leave my small bit of sunshine. I couldn’t find anywhere after looking for almost half an hour, so my thought was to take the bag home and then place it another day. Once I got on the bus and was able to score a seat by myself (!), I realized that this was the perfect place for my package. I snuck it out of the huge purple plastic bag that I’d been carrying it in and sat it on the seat next to me. Luckily, no one realized that I’d left it, and I was able to safely get off the bus without being called back for my forgotten package.

I hope that the recipient of my package enjoyed the offerings and that the thought I put into the contents shone through. I can’t wait for mission #2!