Random Acts for a Kinder World

or the random acts of kindness you do../

Random acts of kindness, paying it forward, and ideas for keeping track of positive events in our daily lives are gaining momentum it seems at the start of 2013. I've been hearing and reading about some and it makes me feel hopeful. I pass a billboard in St. Marys frequently that encourages civility. It has been there for a while so maybe the start of a return to a kinder more civil society is finally catching on. I read that there was a plan in place to stop the sale of beer after halftime at Lambeau Field during yesterday’s game (Packers-Vikings) in an effort to cut down on unruly fan behavior. Then there is the #26 for twenty-six random acts of kindness to honor the lives lost in Newtown, Connecticut. One of my cousins posted on Face Book that she is doing 53 random acts of kindness for her 53^rd birthday. I have also seen several Face Book friends offering unexpected spontaneous surprises to the first 5 friends that leave a comment and agree to post and do the same for 5 others.  I've been thinking about all this and have had a hard time figuring out how I can get in on this too for the New Year. I figure my with age plus 26 and the Face Book 5 at the rate of one random act of kindness per day it will take me a quarter of a year to complete the mission. If I stretch things out over all of 2013 I will need to complete about 2 random acts each week. Maybe then I would be in the habit of doing kind things and the habit would last beyond 2013. That’s a thought.

My cousin (the girl with the 53 self-imposed random acts) worried about the money she didn’t have to spend on the random acts but I think she figured out that you don’t need money to be kind. Although it would be nice to be the recipient of random acts of monetary kindness and it would be nice to be the doer of random acts of monetary kindness, there are lots of other kinds of kind things you can do. Then there is the idea of keeping track of the acts. I figure I need to do that too in order to keep myself accountable to my commitment (think teachers, list makers, and yes, bloggers.. we are track keepers). I spotted an idea on FB about keeping little slips of paper with notes on the positive things that happen in your life in a jar so at the end of 2013 (or on any day you might be feeling a little down) you can take out all the slips and focus on your positive experiences. A jar like that would work for the random acts and the nature of the acts are positive for the doer and recipient alike. Photo attached…but a list still works better for me.