Acts of Kindness
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
Leo Buscaglia
I’ve observed many acts of kindness over the last two to three years, demonstrating how we have it within us to do good. When we do good, we feel good. And the result is happiness.
However, we must not grow weary in doing good. In an individualistic society, getting wrapped up in our little world and forgetting about others is tempting.
Henry Timms created Giving Tuesday in 2012 to encourage people to do good. Now, a global generosity movement, I am inspired. Humans have a great capacity to do good. “Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us daily” (Sally Koch).
When I think of the word generosity, I think of my mother.
She found joy in giving, as generosity was her gift. She’d slip money in your hands without anyone knowing. If you paid her a compliment on a perfume, she would give it to you. When she visited Africa, she gave all her belongings and money away. And she never turned her back on the homeless.
My mother served her purpose, as we all will.
What’s your purpose?
Giving doesn’t always involve money or material; it can take other forms, such as time and service. “Just one act of kindness a day can not only reduce your stress and anxiety, it can also improve the well-being of the person you were kind to and inspire everyone who witnessed the act of kindness.” (givingtuesday.org)
The Giving Tuesday website offers 50 acts of kindness. Here are a couple of my favorites.
Acts of Kindness
1. Write or call someone you haven’t spoken to in a while
2. Pay for the outstanding lunch fees at a school
3. Donate old books that aren’t being used to a literacy program, library, or school
4. Ask for donations instead of birthday gifts
5. Bring a meal to a family with a new baby
6. Write kind notes and leave them all over the neighborhood
7. Publicly acknowledge the accomplishment of someone who deserves more recognition
8. Give a service worker a generous tip
9. Text 10 people and give them a compliment
(Source: givingtuesday.org)
A moving experience
I had just finished my soup when a small group of firefighters entered the restaurant. The men sat and gave their orders to the waiter. After some time, the food arrived. The firefighters stood up and rushed to box everything up. Then they exited the door.
These men could not eat their food, and I was eating mine.
I commented to a nearby guest how terrible an experience it must have been for the firefighters, and his response was: “They are used to it. You can always drop off granola bars at the fire station.”
Now that’s giving.
Thanks for reading.