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Greg's First Time at Karma Kitchen
Last Sunday was Greg's first time at Karma Kitchen. While dining with a large table-of-nine group, he casually comments that he loves the Karma Kitchen t-shirt sported by his server. True to KK tradition, we arrange to tag him with an extra tee that we had in the back! Of course, there's no charge since it is a gift. And somehow, this is the tipping point that just blows him away.
Almost immediately, he opens up his backpack and takes out two fifty dollar gift-cards for EBay and says, "Well, I'd like to gift this to Karma Kitchen." Wow. Really. Excited volunteers decide to step it up even further. "Instead of KK, what if you just gift it to two random tables in the restaurant, right now?" they ask Greg. He loves the idea but is uneasy about making the gift himself, so we make an easier proposition: "How 'bout two volunteers deliver it to two tables, and you can anonymously observe?" Everyone is all smiles about that idea.
Sure enough, two volunteers approach two unknown tables and explain: "At Karma Kitchen, we often tag people with small gifts. And people's cup of gratitude often overflows. We don't always know where that'll overflow but just now, someone in the restaurant gifted us this $50 gift card to give away to a KK guest. So this is for you. Please pay it forward as you are moved."
A couple on one table is just visibly stunned, as one of them puts a hand on her heart with teary eyes; on the other table, a mother decides to use it to teach her six-year-old (also on the table) about generosity. The energy on both of those tables is palpably elevated, as Greg and his whole table watch from a distance.
Generosity has done its magic again.
An unconditional gift always begets another gift. Here's to more than 20,000 volunteer hours that have kept Karma Kitchen alive as a context to practice that kind of generosity!
--NM on Nov 23, 2011
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