#1: Twelve Days to Christmas

December 1990, Red Bluff, California

By CORINNA BARRETT

When I was 8 years old, my parents went through a divorce. Suddenly, my brother, two sisters, and I were children of a single mother. She was smart and worked hard, but trying to provide for four children on one income was a struggle.

The first Christmas after the divorce is one I will never forget. Being 8, I was not quite aware of everything that was going on – I knew only that my mother was frazzled and worried. Later, I realized that she was afraid of not being able to provide the kind of Christmas that we were used to. She didn’t want us to feel neglected or unloved.

Then 12 days before Christmas, something appeared on our front porch. It was a huge frozen turkey, with a note that read, “Not exactly a partridge in a pear tree, but it was the best that we could come up with. Besides, we think the turkey will taste better than a partridge. Enjoy the feast.” And that was it – no name, no signature.

After that, we received a present on our porch for each day of Christmas – chocolate turtles for turtle doves, donuts for golden rings, eggs for geese allaying. Every afternoon, we would run home from school to see what we had received that day. I saw some of the worry drain from my mother’s face, and it was a grand Christmas where we grew closer together.

We never learned who left all those gifts on our porch. They wished to remain anonymous, only wanting to do an act of service and kindness. Even though I don’t know who it was, I feel kindred to them, and each time I hear “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” I smile and tell them “thank you.” I hope they can hear it.

Corinna Barrett grew up in Red Bluff, California, and enjoyed every minute of it. She graduated from Brigham Young University at Idaho with a bachelor’s degree in English, and is currently attending George Washington University for the publishing graduate program.

#2: The Cheer Project

October 2003, Livermore Falls, Maine

By JENN HOLLOWELL

I’ve been an active member of an e-mail group focused on art since 2003. Group discussion, I soon learned, spans from art projects to personal lives. Before long, I found myself in a tight-knit circle of cyberfriends spanning the globe.

During my first year of membership, I was experiencing a personal crisis. Discussions with the group came natural and, in turn, members offered advice, shoulders to cry on and art therapy projects. Before long, this personal issue started impacting my participation in the group and, much to my surprise, they noticed.

Over the course of about three months, I started receiving anonymous packages, notes, letters, postcards, journals, and art pieces from all over the world. Each was marked with one word: CHEER. There were no return addresses, besides offering a few clues about what was going on. Art supplies, tea, candles, greeting cards, and other items were coming daily. I was overwhelmed and dumbfounded, but I kept track of it all in the art group, in my online journal, and in a book I titled The Cheer Project.

I eventually found out that I was receiving random acts of kindness from this large online community. Once people heard what I was going through, they could relate to my story and understood the seriousness. They wanted to lift my spirits and offer me a bit of “mail art cheer.” I still have every bit of it saved in that book, and I’ll never forget a moment.

My heartfelt thanks went out the group, and my immediate reaction was to send thank-you notes. They refused the gesture and said watching me experience such glee during a terrible storm in my life was thank-you enough. Since then, I’ve been actively paying it forward during every opportunity that arises.

Jenn Hollowell is a freelance writer and artist residing in the great state of Maine. She’s a mother of three, a companion for life, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. Learn more about her career happenings on Myspace. Her goal is to create art every day and feature it on her ArtsoMofo blog.

Posted by Common Ties on Monday, October 8th, 2007 | Email This Post

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 12:02 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.