Kindness Reminders

I live in Houston and am all too familiar with hurricanes. We were in Ike's direct path in September of 2008 and had no access to buy food, water, or gas for several days. No electricity for 2 weeks. Volunteers set up stations dispersing water and ice to keep the foods from perishing that we had stored in coolers preparing for the storm. Volunteers have busy lives but they make the time because they have big hearts! This email was sent to me a few weeks ago.

Laura wrote:

Hacker: A person who uses a computer system without a specific, constructive purpose or without proper authorization. From Sci-Tech Dictionary

Last week, I was talking with the owner of Kind Notes about how a personal letter from just one person in support of your business can keep you going on days you're ready to throw in the towel! Ironically, yesterday I received one of those letters. I opened the bulky envelope to find 3 packages. In the first package was a ribbon with clasp and a decorative bead and key charm with a card that read, "You Have Just Been Tagged by Kindness" next to a photo of a beautiful young girl. On the back was a message about this young girl's FINAL wish: to celebrate life, hold each other up, and uplift those you don't even know. In the other two packages were necklaces that I understood were intended for me to give and uplift someone I don't know.

I received this email and it reminded me of my first blog post called Exercise in Kindness, http://string-ring.com/node/93 Teaching kindness can be fun!

Julie wrote:
Each night for homework, my students needed to perform 3 RAOKs and report them to the class. For the last 20 years I have instructed my children that, just as they brush their teeth, they need to perform 3 RAOKs a day. Each night at dinner they need to report what their RAOKs were.

Julie Sue Auslander, President of Csubs, a service of Corporate Subscription Management Services, LLC

I first found out about Areyvut from Twitter. Any organization that encourages teens to bring kindness to their communities is someone I'm always interested in following. Leaving Twitter "tweets" daily as kindness reminders, Areyvut has a number of programs and resources to teach students the important of kindness, communal involvement and actively making a difference in the community including the A Kindness a Day Calendar which features a daily kindness. You don't have to be Jewish to see the value in this!

Areyvut, translated from Hebrew, means "responsibility." Responsibility to one's community, responsibility to the world. I particularly like the Teen Scene on their website which features ordinary teenagers doing extraordinary things.

Comedians that use mean-spirited humor are not funny to me. One of the things I love about Ellen Degeneres is that she never uses another person as the butt of her jokes. So when I found out about Hollis Blume’s Oneness Experiment, I felt obliged to post her story. Hollis practices RAOK and is on a spiritual and scientific mission to meet Ellen DeGeneres in order to prove that we are all connected.

Hollis wrote to me:
Hi Tina,

I fill my day with Random Acts of Kindness because I love to see
people smile. And in this day and age, people are so surprised when
you do something nice for them! My husband and I find coins on the
street and put them in a jar. When the jar is full, I take it to the
bank and exchange it for paper money. I carry it with me, and when I
see a stranger on the street who looks like they may need a
pick-me-up, I hand them the money. It's usually only a few dollars,
but it really puts a smile on people's faces. Almost always, soon

I received this email from Eileen Roth, author of Organizing For Dummies. It is another example of how opportunities for RAOK arise daily, and unexpectedly.

Eileen wrote:

A few weeks ago we were at a model railroad day long clinic that broke for
lunch. One guy said he didn't know the area and asked if he could go with
someone. We offered to take him even though we didn't know the area
either.

It turned out he didn't even drive, he had taken several buses to get
there. In fact he is on SSI. We ended up buying his lunch, drove him
home so he would not need buses, and we are giving him some of our older
buildings to help him get started on his model trains.

Eileen
Eileen Roth
Scottsdale AZ

The Kindness Movement is growing strong with people like Fran, a partner-in-kind, who sent me this nice message about her plans to promote kindness via a circle group. She touched on several issues that I'm passionate about, such as the needs of foster kids aging out of the system and services for seniors. I've blogged on both these issues a number of times. The guerilla knitting movement is something new to me and I love it! Leaving a handmade goody behind is such a nice way of spreading kindness. I'm not a knitter but my mother-in-law knits these adorable little caps (see below) for newborns in developing countries. What a nice way to say "I care!" with something made from your own hands.

Fran wrote:

This 1 caught my attention because I believe so much in this simple life strategy. I started focusing on doing this many years ago after hearing Zig Ziglar speak of it during a business seminar. My life has been enriched by making someone else, be it friend or stranger; smile, feel better, safer, happier, more worthwhile..."whatever" that particular act accomplished at the time. It's rewarding for me to live with a "do onto others" attitude. Performing random acts of kindness just makes sense. I am a happy, successful 60 year old due largely to living with this simple mantra packed in my daily routine of life.

Edwin Harmon

This is a short note sent to me from Lee Caroll. This is how "Paying it Forward" begins!

She writes:

The first year I owned my home it snowed very hard. At that time, I lived alone; a woman whom neighbors often saw wearing a neck brace. I was not sure what I would do if no one came along for hire to clear it for me. When I awakened the next morning the whole driveway had been plowed, no note and no one had any idea who had done it for me.