One of my biggest takeaways from my involvement with Random Acts over the past couple of years is that every act of kindness matters. Huge global projects are wonderful, but sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference. That means it can take a long while to conquer the world with small acts of kindness. But I believe it can happen. It IS happening.
When I was putting together my Pecha Kucha talk about kindness and Random Acts, I went where a lot of people do–to the internet! I have a lot of online friends who are also Random Acts supporters, so I asked them to tell me about something creative they did to show kindness. Some were creative in a proactive way, like a young woman who builds shelters for stray cats in her neighborhood. Like, builds them. By hand. I would never have even though of that, much less been able to do it.
The photo above is the one I ended up using for my presentation. Here’s what she told me:
A work friend’s husband has been battling cancer & my friend collects rubber ducks so to cheer her up, I made wings from a Kleenex for my Meta! Misha/Cas & put him next to the ducks to “tend” them.
I love that she took inspiration from something her friend already loved, and chose that as her way of sharing kindness. Along with being creative, I thought it was really sweet. (Thanks, Bridget!)
There’s a particular phrase that turns up in business leadership, in sports, in a number of places: “Help the Helper”. There are plenty of times when we can’t directly help a situation, or reach a person or a group of people. But we can support those who can. That’s what I’m doing right now, on CrowdRise. Random Acts inspires me to spread kindness where I can, and to give support to people who are helping others in places I just can’t reach. I would love it if you would consider donating to my CrowdRise fundraiser, which is running until September 21. Helping others spread kindness is exactly what I want for my birthday.
Thanks for reading, and for sharing.