Fill your heart with awesome — there’ll be no room for grumbles

Last week, Thing Two told me about an evening of awesomeness she had with the Scouts, and she gave me permission to share the story. I hope it brings you as many good feelings as it did me.

She and a couple of other Scouters went with the 1st Greenwood Scouts (aged 11 to 14) on the bus downtown to look at the Sound and Light Show on Parliament Hill and the Christmas lights. They naturally congregated near the Centennial Flame, some playing rambunctiously in the snow, some watching the fire, some the light show.

A woman approached Thing Two and the other Scouters and offered them some pizza left over from a birthday party. “You’re Scouts; you must be hungry,” she said. She must have noticed the green and yellow neckers.

A few minutes later, a young woman approached Thing Two and offered an envelope containing a ten-dollar bill. “It’s legit,” she said. “It’s called 10 Days of Awesome. Thing Two mentioned that she’d heard about it on the radio the week before. “You must have been up early,” was the response.

Awesome Ottawa is a chapter of The Awesome Foundation, which works on “advancing the interest of awesome in the universe, $1,000 at a time.” The Ottawa chapter has been going since May 2010. The trustees give $1,000, no strings attached, to a project, group or individual every month.

The Scouts decided to bring the money back to the rest of the Troop to figure out what to do with it.

View of Confederation Park from a car window

They headed for the bus stop by way of Confederation Park to look at the lights. Thing Two got on the bus last, to make sure there were no stragglers, and was surprised when the bus driver brushed away her tickets and handed her a transfer instead. “You’re Scouts; you’re not paying,” the driver said. Turns out the driver had not accepted payment from any of the Scouts.

On the way to Blair Station, the meeting point for parents and transfer point for those taking a local bus home, the Scouts conferred again about the ten dollars. Once most of the passengers had disembarked, the Scout who had done the bulk of the planning for the outing, Hayden, presented the 10 Days of Awesome envelope to the driver, to do with it as she saw fit. She was speechless at first, then thanked them.

There are so many good things in this story that my heart feels full just thinking about them.

• An outing that included playing in the snow, on Parliament Hill.
• Food shared by complete strangers, knowing it would be safe. (What is it about pizza on Parliament Hill? In my very first post I mentioned pizza and a goldfish bowl on Parliament Hill.)
• Someone had a birthday party on Parliament Hill!
• 10 Days of Awesome, a breath of fresh air in a government town.
• A kind bus driver (thanks OC Transpo!).
• Young people out doing something interesting, having adventures, and bringing a bus driver near to tears with a kind gesture, a gesture made possible by a chance encounter.

Stories like this help block Grumblings by filling my heart and mind with gratitude and a general feeling of happiness, so there’s no room for grumbles. I wish for us all this year lots of heart-warming stories to fill the spaces where grumbles might take root.

I’d love to hear your stories about chance encounters and happy adventures. Share them in the comments or send an email to susan at goodbyegrumblings.ca.