commit random acts of kindness

I returned a dime that the automatic changer gave me in Lucky, 10 cents too much. And later that morning, I had to increase my time for the parking ticket machine; these are the kind of machine where you can’t increase your time by putting more money in – you have to get a whole new ticket. So I crammed the old ticket, which still had an hour left, into the ticket machine so that the next person could use it.

I’ve been continuing to do so this so “routinely,” that I’ve decided to set aside this goal in the completed listing, so that I’ll have more space for other goals on my current list. (It’s not going away….it’s just moving. grin)

I was riding on BART, and found a woman’s wallet. Searching through all the credit cards, cash and identification, I finally found a business card. Her name wasn’t on the card, but the email address listed matched the initials on the driver’s license. So I called that number, left a message, and then emailed her from my phone.

She came over last night to my house to pick it up.

Pretty cool… I’m glad I could save her the time and effort it would take to cancel out everything and get a new DL, etc.

I have read this – it’s a provocative book. Sort of the dumbed down, thinned out, condensed version of The Happiness Purpose (also by De Bono.)

I did one last year – brought a homeless guy (who was begging for spare change) into a KFC and bought him a meal (on the way home from work.) Well one is better than none! I like to think that it was my buying him dinner that helped (or was soley responsible for) get him on the upward path.

I write this now because I saw him today, again on the way home from work, and I avoided him.

Why you might ask – well he still remembers me and trys to talk to me and if he has any Big Issue (supports the homeless) magazines left he tries to get me to buy one off him.

I did buy the first couple of times as he was no longer begging but had become a Big Issue vendor. Supporting his upward path you might say.

But I started to feel uncomfortable on the third time and started to avoid him. Yes he is bringing himself up and I showed him a little kindness. So why am I avoiding him and more importantly why do I feel bad avoiding him?!

I think I need to give up on this for now because the inital gesture was too grand – I need to do smaller more thoughtful things which are not quite ‘random’. Once I get into the wing of these perhaps I shall be more spontaneous (i.e. more random!).

I am not a saint but neither am I a slimeball.

I just vacilliate too much – perhaps I should get onto an even keel before returning to this goal!

This is something I do on a semi-regular basis anyway. I just want to continue doing it.

My most recent one was giving an elderly lady and her groceries a ride home from the store. The local taxi service stood her up.

He’s a crazy drug/alcoholic/manic addict crazy man. And I see the good person under all the BS. With no where to stay or go I brought him to family dinner on T-Giving Day. My family loved on him, fed him. BF was awesome, had to pick him up from the hospital that morning and scrape him off to look presentable. Crazy stuff. He fell asleep on the couch as mom played the piano. Brought him home with me and he slept for 15 hours. I woke up to find him in the kitchen trying to cook me breakfast. I think that was the sweetest gesture I’ve ever seen…

I remember a couple of months ago, I saw a co-worker behind me in line at Subway. I was buying my morning Kona or French Roast coffee and muffin and she was getting her breakfast. I paid for her breakfast and she was taken aback by my gesture. I was happy that I made her morning a little less monotonous, lol.

That’s when people will need help the most.

Today was a day for compliments! I gave one to a co-worker who completed a terrific presentation, & then three to people I interacted with at the grocery store after work (“a great selection of fruits & veggies,” “such a nice smile & friendly attitude,” & “what cute red mittens you’ve got”)! smile

Wrote a lovely email to one of the new girls at the office… not a fantastic r.a.k. but am struggling a bit today