Perform deliberate acts of kindness.

I have known this girl more years than I like to think about and I really think of her more like a daughter. So when she started talking about her living room and how she wanted to fix it and being that she is the typical young married / college student with more ideas and enthusiasm than money - well, what could I do but put my trusty sewing machine to work and whip up some new dressings for her space? I felt like a Design on a Dime pro, except those folks get it done in one day and make the homeowner clear out while they work while I took a lot of long evening hours and then had her and her husband hanging around discussing the best arrangements. But her new room sure looks great - even if I do say so myself!

Sometimes you have to go looking for ways to fulfill your goals and sometimes the means fall right in your lap, or at least right in your backyard. And sometimes they arrive in your backyard on a bus from New Orleans. We in Houston have been fortunate to have people come to us after being evacuated from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Our convention center, Astrodome, and Reliant Center now have their own zip codes as shelters for our refugees. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to work at George R. Brown convention center. I have to say—I am very impressed. Very well organized. It’s been a wonderful opportunity to meet the people who have come to live here and to help them get settled. If anyone is in the vicinity of Houston and wants to meet some great folks, volunteering down at the Astrodome, Reliant Center, or GRBCC is a great way to do it!

The definition of “random” is “having no specific pattern or objective; haphazard”. If life’s most urgent question is “what are you doing for others?” and, big picture-wise, we really have very little time in which to do it, when performing acts of kindness, wouldn’t it be better to have some objective in mind rather than going about it haphazardly? To be thoughtful and deliberate and intentional about the kindnesses we performed with the purpose and intent of making someone else’s life better?