A random act of kindness is a non premeditated, inconsistent action designed to offer kindness towards the outside world. “Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” – Anne Herbert
Today is Gabriel’s Day of Kindness. Truly one of my favorite days of the year. On November 3, 2012, Gabriel was diagnosed with leukemia. Even on his most difficult days he always had a smile on his face and joy in his heart. Today it has been nine years since that “dark” day. Gabriel’s day of Kindness was started because he wanted to change his darkest day into a day of light, filling the world with love and kindness.
When looking into writing this I was surprised by the difference between being Kind and acts of kindness, something I normally use interchangeably. Although being Kind is one of my favorite topics, today I want to focus on random acts of kindness.
The world seems upside down right now and at times is pretty dark to me. It is amazing how a random act of kindness can brighten up our world. It is giving your best self to others without requests or promise of return on investment. It is doing something nice for someone else without asking them for anything in return, out of the goodness of your heart.
I have shared this story before but worth sharing again. A few years back after recovering from my brain surgery my daughter Molly and I were shopping at our local T.J. Maxx (with I’m sure a candle in our shopping cart). This woman approached me (obviously pre-covid) and gave me a big hug and went on and on about how she had heard I was sick and how she had been praying for me to get well. I smiled and thanked her and then she continued to go on about how I was so kind to her daughter while she was a student at the middle school I work at and how much it meant to her. I will be honest, I had no idea who she was or even who her daughter was. I see her every time I go intoT.J. Maxx and she always gives me a big hello. I still don’t know her name. What I do know is that I touched their lives, and it made a difference. I made a difference in her life by being kind, something I try and do every single day.
Acts of Kindness do not have to be massive gestures they can be little unseen acts. I’ve paid for morning coffee for the people behind me at the Dunkin drive-thru. I’m long gone before the person pulls up to the window. Other Examples: feeding a stranger’s parking meter when you walk by and see it expired, picking up litter you see on the sidewalk, or holding the elevator when you see someone running for it. These little acts of kindness are priceless to the recipient. For years our family had a big Christmas party. It grew year after year. How many ornaments or Christmas candles do you need (well, you know I do love my candles)? People felt funny coming to our party empty-handed. We decided to ask our guests to bring an unwrapped toy to the party. We would have massive amounts of toys that we would bring to child services every year. Our daughters would love packing the toys up and delivering them, they loved giving back. For us, it was a lesson to our girls to give to others when we have been blessed with so much. Acts of Kindness – doing something for someone else without getting anything in return. Acts of Kindness does a heart good and we don’t need a special day to do it. We can do it every single day, no matter how small or insignificant it may be.
Accidental Harmony 