The Chive

I know I mentioned this in my last post in November, but I am going to repeat this part of my last blog post, because this has become such a special part of my life over the past 2 months. This group is truly amazing and have made some of the hardest couple of months in my life much easier to bare…

“I have to separate this part from the rest, because I am so beyond thankful this came into my life, but… I’m so, SO thankful for the Nashville Chive group. This group came into my life at the EXACT moment I needed it. At first glance, it may seem like it’s just full of pics of hot girls, funny pictures & people who like to party, but it is so much more than that. If you have never heard of the Chive, or have seen shirts with “KCCO” or “Keep Calm Chive On” and didn’t know what it meant at first (like me), do yourself a favor and take a little time to go to http://www.thechive.com and click “Chive Charities” at the top. This group is amazing. These people care… and they care about total strangers, and they make you feel like you aren’t a stranger and that you are a part of something special, and if you are part of a Chive group, you ARE a part of something very special. They donate their time, effort, money, or whatever they can to help other people. They give to charities of all kinds and this group, for me anyway, has quickly become a very important part of my life, not because they just donate time and effort, but because they have invested in caring about me & Wes and sometimes it feels like they have gone above and beyond to make us feel like we are a part of the group, even though we are relatively new to it. I’ve only been to a handful of get-togethers with the Nashville area Chive group, but they are such special people. They are all funny, kind, compassionate, good-hearted, loving people, which is exactly the type of positivity I needed to be around right now, which is what I’m most thankful for that they have provided me. It just goes to show you that a little bit of compassion can go a long way for people. It also shows me that sometimes people come into your life and you know its meant to be… This group definitely is that for me.”

Let me add that the above snippet was written after only 1 month (and a couple of get togethers) of being involved in something so incredible. Not only do I feel even stronger about this group and the meaning behind it than I did a month ago, but they still continue to amaze me on a daily basis. This group is literally one of the most special things I have ever been a part of in my entire life. It overwhelms me with such positive emotions when I truly start to think about it. Not only have these people been there to lift my spirits on less than spectacular days, but they have taken time to help us by picking up items that we couldn’t transport, came to help decorate our Christmas tree, some hung out with us on our wedding anniversary. They have also tried to give us better hockey tickets for our anniversary (just because), came out to support my benefit and they (in total) donated over $500-600 to the benefit, and they were basically strangers to me (which I now genuinely consider FAMILY). The fact that the world still has such giving, caring, WONDERFUL people gives me hope!

In the craziness of their own personal lives & ups and downs, I feel like these amazing people would do just about anything to reach out to literally a total stranger to help them when they are down. They bring out a part of me that I have honestly missed about myself… and until I was surrounded by something that I wanted back in my life, I had no idea that I had let myself get out of touch with, and that is GIVING… Giving because I want to… NOT because it is expected, but because it’s just the right thing to do, and because I am capable of doing it. Sometimes it is so easy to get wrapped up in our own lives that we forget that the world & the problems and needs in it are SO much bigger than we are, and we should be using any opportunity available to us to give back.

I could never possibly give back as much as this group has given to me to support me(and I’m not just talking about donating money, but what they have given to me emotionally). I’m not sure I can even fully express how special this group is to my life in just this one post, but it is special. Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) & coming together for the common good of others, is exactly what the world needs more of! What may seem like a small act of kindness from you could make all the difference in the world to someone else!

In the spirit of the holidays, I want to encourage everyone to go out of their way to do something nice for another human being (especially if you don’t know them).

I am going to write a separate entry about the benefit itself, but I can honestly say that the success of the event had a lot to do with the fact that I had the support from the Nashville Chive group.