Starting the year off with kindness and generosity is just the way I wanted to walk into 2020 and a new decade (and if you’ve been following along for a while then you know that I’m a January baby). So I spent minutes upon minutes scanning the internet (both Pinterest and the search engines) for lists of how other people have been kind or generous to other human beings. The lists were diverse, but they also had some commonalities.
I took those lists, and I compiled my own private list. And it’s been ridiculously fun to be “secret santa-ing” January. Nothing spreads more cheer than finding ways to brighten someone else’s day. Somehow, it has a boomerang effect, and every time I do good, I receive good.
17 Kindnesses
- Give small gifts anonymously
- Pay off a student’s lunch debt
- Send someone flowers
- Pay for someone behind you in the drive-through
- Write an encouraging note for someone
- Use Kiva.com to give a small loan
- Do a social media shoutout for people who have inspired or positively impacted you
- Pay for another table at a restaurant
- Donate to your favorite cause
- Send an encouraging text message
- Pick up trash
- Volunteer at an animal shelter
- Write a thank-you note
- Leave $5 in a Redbox movie for snacks
- Leave a $5 Starbucks gift card in a library book
- Send another table dessert
- Order a bulk collection of something you can give away when the mood hits (party favor type things)
So far, my favorite to do was to ask people on my social media to respond to my story with an emoji, and in turn, I would look through their home page for a picture that I liked and then say something nice about them. I was so happy that people jumped in and participated. As my dad always says, “there’s never a bad a time for encouragement.”
I’d really like to live all of 2020 with an emphasis on kindness and care of other human beings.
Last week, I was chatting with a friend about how the reason I don’t watch the news is that my little life is already too heartbreaking. It sounds dramatic, I know. But I have limited capacity, and the world is so full of hurt that I feel that it could choke me out way too easily. The heartbreak that touches my life just from my small community is sometimes too much to stand.
So let’s throw kindnesses like glitter. We all need more love and more encouragement. Do you have favorite kindnesses to do for others?
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