random acts of kindness

I have a daily action that I now perform which is to “Pay It Forward”. I keep a log, for now, so I will be reminded every morning and evening to give to others and get outside of myself. One would think it is so easy to do something randomly kind every day, yet it can be challenging during a full day of life.

Some days I give a smile, hold the door for others, simply say Thank You, pick up pieces of garbage in my path, or offer a hug. The “big” return comes on the days when serendipity arises and I do something that feels really GOOD. Offering a ride to a walking mom/child on a rainy day as I am taking my daughter to school, giving an anonymous gift to a neighbor, donating clothes to a family in need, giving discount coupons to a customer in line at the bookstore, or planning a secret kind act for someone at the beginning of my day. Learning to be more creative about it as time goes on. We all make a difference one act at a time.

I’m a new comer to this task, but I have done a couple of good deeds in my time. The one good deed that qualifies as a random act of kindness is connected to another ‘43 thing’. My target was to read the BBC’s top 100 books by Christmas or I would donate money to charity, of course I didn’t complete it (have you seen the size of some of those books!) The task of donating was upon me.

I thought long and hard about who to donate to but could never decide, then when I was online sponsoring my sister in a charity race I stumbled across hundreds of people looking for sponsorship. So I searched through and those that caught my eye got a suprise sponsor from a ‘Friendly Stranger’, I hope it gave them all a little boost in confidence!

Now I have to decide what to do with the money I pledged to complete the ‘BBC top 100 books’ by July 1st.(Seriously, those books are massive!)

I honestly believe the more good things you do to help other people, the more good things will come your way. The society we live in today, sadly people don’t care for others only themselves, so maybe if the few that actually do care, keep trying others will realise and go from there. All it takes is one good deed, and from that the chain can keep going on, as long as everyone will try.

I’ve always thought this would be wonderful to do! Just something here and there. I figure the hard part is the ‘random’ and ‘annonymous’. I don’t know what I could do to help someone without talking to them myself and suggesting ideas. Everyone needs help though so I’ll have to think about this one…

Not so random.

I watched 60 minutes last night and one story was about a group called Remote Area Medical  ramusa.org   Anyway they showed how with all volunteers they give medical service to areas that are under serviced.  This use to be in third world areas.  Lately it seems they have found a great need in the UNited States for their mission.  So I wrote them a note of congradulations and sent a small donation to help their cause.

Last night I drove right by the open prime parking spot and drove to the end of the aisle instead to park. Better to leave that spot to someone who might be able to use it whereas I was kidless for the evening and could enjoy a brisk pace in the cold weather.

Today I left money in the copy machine at the library. It wasn’t much but I hope it made someone happy.

I’ve been keeping my eyes open to opportunities. What I’ve noticed is a whole lot of “me first” attitudes out there. Hopefully I’m not going to be one of them anymore. It’s not very random but it is a new thing for me, I donated money to the Special Olympics yesterday.

I am close to chceking this one off. I have greatly improved in the area of going out of my way to help others. The only factor that keep me from checking it off is that I do mostly for persons I know…not strangers, I need just a little more there.

Both on a personal scale – with the people in my life – and on a less known scale, such as with total strangers. An example of the former is doing little things like writing recommendations for people in their LinkedIn profiles; an example of the later is complimenting waitstaff on their service verbally and not just with a tip.

This stuff is so easy to do – we just have to remember to do it. I tend to do it anyway, but I believe in doing more of it, since life is short and spreading joy and thanks is usually free and easy enough to do.