Hello All,

It's been a while since I last posted anything but I am back and will continue to write my thoughts on a weekly basis. Hope you take a moment to read them and make comments or suggestions.

So my first post of 2014 is about a recent CHALLENGE my church asked the congregation to take on, which really goes well with what I'm trying to accomplish with A Lending Hand. Our pastor challenged us all to do one anonymous random act of kindness, once a week for a complete stranger.

I thought it was a great idea and off I went super excited and motivated to be challenged in a way that encouraged me to keep pushing with my goal of lending  a hand. Mind you that was three weeks ago and despite my constant search for a chance to swoop in and do my good deeds, I might have helped 2-3 people. Not quite an EPIC FAIL, but definitely not a Whopping success in my mind.

As usual what's the point of this post, well it's two fold. One I am  reminding myself that helping people or giving of yourself doesn't always require a grandiose event. Opportunities will come in many sizes (for lack of a better term), but it's what I do with those opportunities that matter most. My second point is to CHALLENGE you all to do anonymous random acts of kindness as well and to share with me your experiences. I would love to hear about them and get some ideas of what I could possibly do.

Well-that' all for now, but as always please stay tuned for future stories from my Mentor Chronicles & Random Acts of Kindness.

As long as I can remember I have never really had much of a relationship with my neighbors. Growing up in LA and later in Florida my family for the most part stuck to themselves, that is not to say we weren't social but for the most part our neighbors were pretty much strangers. Although as a kid my siblings and I played with all the neighborhood kids, for some reason we just never quite got to chummy with them and it seems it extended into adulthood. I write all that because on this journey I find myself on to Lend A Hand I was once again taught a valuable lesson-Being Neighborly!

The story begins with me getting up bright and early for two very important interviews on the other side of town, basically an 1.5 drive with no traffic to one and an equally long drive to the next. Needless to say it was really important I get to them. Well wouldn't you know it my car won't start the morning of-Really!!!!??? Why now is all I could think?

Ok, Step 1-I go through my check list of all the things it could be- mind you it's a short list I don't know S**T about cars. Step 2- Call Triple A, oh yes!! Another Wammy the operator informs me my card just expired a couple of days ago. WOW!! Murphy's Law in full effect is my next thought. Luckily I was able to renew it immediately. As I wait I think to myself what if Triple A can't fix the problem, I'm F**K*D!! Excuse me language.

This is where I learned my next lesson I am referring to as Being Neighborly. Why Being Neighborly? Well thankfully in the past year I have a new neighbor who moved in next door (Let's call him Steve) who on occasion we have taken care of each others dogs, watched sports, had drinks, bbq's, you get the picture basically being good neighbors.

Normally during a bad situation like this I would reachout to a longtime friend. I have plenty of friends who would jump at a moments notice to help me, but it was too late to call them they were probably at work or on their way to work. Not to mention they live kind of far from me-wouldn't do me any good. I needed to leave ASAP. So I bit the bullet and called Steve to see if he would be so kind as to lend me his car (Ballsy I know) for the day to get to these important interviews. I won't bore you with the details, but Steve didn't pick up at first but eventually called me back ASAP and was willing to Lend me A Hand/His Car. Fortunately I didn't need it because Triple A fixed the problem.

So what's my point with this novel? My point/lesson learned is not that I didn't need his car, but that he was willing to lend me his car, to help me out. I don't know Steve well enough to ask him to lend me his car, although we have spent plenty of time together. We are still building a relationship but his selfless gesture really made me be grateful for Steve and his willing act of kindness w/out hesitation.

The day finally arrived today where I met my Mentee. Before heading over to meet him I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be, but truthfully there were still some butterflies in my stomach. For privacy reasons I will change his name to Lil Manny because in some ways he reminds me of myself at his age. It turns out there was nothing to be nervous about, Lil Manny was part of the program in years past and basically took over our first encounter. I imagined us getting to know each other a little bit at first, but he preferred to do his math homework. I was surprised to say the least but it makes sense now, he rather talk school work than get personal. In time, Rome wasn't built in a day.

Needless to say I went with it. I will do better next time with taking control over our session (Mental note). Thank God I still remember long division and how to solve word problems. I can't imagine my first day and Lil Manny gets a dumb mentor who can't do basic arithmetic, can you say Major Fail? Luckily today was a success overall; we did some school work, ate some snacks, played some games but more importantly I was able to spend time with him. He was a tough read, but seems like a typical child finding his way. Although I did watch his interaction with the other children on the playground and it seems like he is one of the leaders. The other kids gravitate to him, not to mention his cute little brother as well.

It is the weirdest thing being in an elementary school environment after so many years. The smells and the sounds transported me back to when I was a child running around without a care in the world. Unfortunately Lil Manny has many worries in his life at such a young age, one's I was fortunate enough not to have experienced. I hope I can alleviate some of his worries over time.

Key Learnings:

Take control of session

Make time to share about each other

Cultivate the leader within Lil Manny

Buy spicy chips for next session-He made sure to mention it

Keep showing up

Goals:

Get him to open up

Meet his family

As I mentioned in my introduction I have been searching for ways to give back in some form or fashion for quite some time now. Fortunately an opportunity has presented itself and I'm excited to announce I will be mentoring an 11 yr old boy who is need of a positive male role model. I am unable to share the organizations name for privacy reasons, however it is an amazing national organization which does great work throughout the U.S. on behalf of children. I am blessed to have been selected truly.

I officially start next week and I am already nervous as all heck from the anticipation of meeting this young boy. I will share weekly my experiences and thoughts as I encounter them in hopes of being able to document such a scary yet crucial role I have been selected to be a part of. Since there is not much to report but the fact that I have my first official assignment on my journey of A LENDING HAND, I hope you follow my progress and can lend me a hand whenever I need it. It could be through encouragement, advice or simply just reading my blog posts.

I do not have children of my own yet, so if there is any sound advice please be so kind as to share it with me via the blog or at [email protected].

As always please pass along my information if you know of anyone that could use a lending hand. I would be honored to help.

Thanks for reading and sharing.