Before I jump into today’s post, I just want to thank Brittany Badami for being the first to donate to my birthday campaign for Random Acts. Thank you, Brittany!
If you’ve been following my recent posts, you’ll remember that I’ve spent a little time each day taking apart a little piece of my recent Pecha Kucha talk about Random Acts and why kindness matters in the world. My goal is to talk a little bit about each of the 20 slides in that presentation (which you can watch right here). Today’s slide is about everyday acts of kindness.
What would we do without our cell phones? They’re so small and yet so powerful. They keep us organized, they entertain us, they give us directions when we get lost–oh, and you can even communicate person-to-person with them! It’s so, so tempting to let this post devolve into one of those “call your mother” kinds of posts, but I’m going to resist the temptation. I will, however, remind you of a little thing called texting.
I used to be really neurotic about texting. Like, if I texted someone and they didn’t text me right back, I got anxious. Why didn’t they answer? Did I write something that they misunderstood? Do they not want to talk to me? But most of my friends and family use read receipts now, so that anxiety is gone for the most part. And you have to admit, texting can be pretty fantastic overall.
For a long while, a friend of mine was in the habit of texting me almost daily. We didn’t live near each other at the time, and we were trying as hard as we could to stay close in spite of the distance. Every day, at almost the same time each day, I’d get some random text. It might have been a joke, or a grumble about a bad driver on the commute, or just something silly. But those texts made me feel good. Special. Valued. And while my friend may have put serious effort or intent into texting me daily, he made it look and feel effortless. Which it totally can be! Think about it: you find yourself thinking about someone, you take a minute or two to fire off a text message, and you’re done. Even a quick “hi, how are you?” can go a long way. The trick is that you might not always be aware that the recipient truly appreciates your message. But as they say, it’s the thought that counts.
There’s never a bad time to let someone know you’re thinking about them. That they matter to you. That you thought of them and it made you smile. Take a moment today and tell that person. Chances are, you’ll make them smile, too.