February 17 is the national day to recognize Random Acts of Kindness. Of course, you can act in kindness at any time of the year. You can grab a trash bag and clean up a park or street that you are walking through. Or maybe you like buying a coworker a coffee or surprising someone by giving them a quick compliment. Historical examples include creating and sharing May Baskets. Here are 50 other suggestions!
Put simply, a random act of kindness is a non-premeditated, inconsistent impulse that results in an action making a bit of the world happier. The phrase “random kindness and senseless acts of beauty” was written by Anne Herbert on a placemat in Sausalito, California in 1982. It was based on the phrases “random acts of violence” and “senseless acts of cruelty” and is meant to be a call to action… or at least a strong encouragement. It is now a worldwide phenomenon. Let’s celebrate!
There are a number groups around the world who take part in organized acts of kindness. My favorite story about the efforts from such a group is that of how several airports were closed down by decorated Christmas trees floating around the airspace, powered by helium balloons. The trees were not supposed to get loose — floating the trees was one of the activities in a money-raising contest to send funds to the Art Creation Foundation For Children in Haiti. One group I took part in performed genuine acts of kindness such as organizing water-and-food gifts for people living on the streets, holding a free hug station at a busy corner in a town and baking treats for neighbors with their family. Some others simply focused on raising money for local charities. It was a zany experience, being part of an international event with thousands of people all over the world, all while doing art with your local team and building awareness for all sorts of causes, and it was a lot of fun. While I never shut down an airport, I did give out free water at a rest stop and did a marathon of 48 hours of sewing and tying baby quilts for a family shelter plus dozens of other activities.
“Random Acts of Kindness” is by Dete Meserve and Rachel Greco, two people who found each other over a story about a good Samaritan (a “Good Sam”) who bought a new van for a disabled woman he didn’t know and hadn’t even met. Both felt a powerful reminder of human kindness and compassion from this one story and came together to find and share others. It’s a short book and includes a small sample of the many instances of kindness they discovered in their research.
Most of these acts are started at random — a spontaneous decision by the giver. There are stories such as a farmer who leaves farming for economic reasons and then comes back to it to grow food for hungry kids in his community. An entire dog rescue was taken over by another rescue organization to save the animals from neglect and starvation. The impulse to make the world a better place led to years of work, planning and dedication by the Good Sams of the story. I hope you find them as moving as I did! This book is available on Hoopla, which means more than one of us can read it at the same time, so I plan to keep it checked out for a while.
If you are looking for good activities with clear directions, check out “Make and Share Random Acts of Kindness” by Mique
“Random Acts of Kindness” is by Lisa Verge Higgins, whose multiple books explore women’s lives and women’s friendships. In this book she examines a friendship revisited after years of growing apart: Jenna traveled 3,000 miles to help a friend recovering from a double-mastectomy, all the while Jenna herself was dealing with a shocking delivery of divorce papers and the difficulty of living with a moody teenager. She, of course, didn’t mention any of her problems when she arrived to help Claire — she was just there to help. Their reunion inspired a trip to their hometown. As they travelled and talked, they each discovered something about themselves and both were able to see friendship — and the country — in a new light.
I was drawn to writing about random acts of kindness because I want celebrate when we make an effort to make someone else happier. We are not alone in giving into our impulses; many of our fellow humans also delight in finding ways to perform these acts of kindness. If you are one of us, let me say “Thank You” from this writer of the DBRL blogging team.
Image credit: Free Hugs Union Square, Todd Shaffer via Flickr (license)
