Randomly Kind

“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong.  Because someday in life you will have been all of these.”  -George Washington Carver

Happy Friday!  This weekend, consider penciling this small goal into your plans: See what happens when you extend a random act of kindness (RAK) toward someone.  It doesn’t have to be anything grand or enormous – just a small gesture that indicates that you care for their welfare and want to help make their day a little easier.  Sometimes those small acts go a long way toward helping others feel more at ease in the world, even if just for a moment.

Here are some everyday suggestions – but obviously there are a million ways to help another person, many of which are situational:

  • Send a brief text to a family member or close friend, telling them something you appreciate about them. (Although if you’re anything like me and my brother, saying something nice would just be strange…instead, we insult each other to show love.  So if that’s how you roll, then send them a serious burn to convey how much you care about them).
  • Bake or cook something to bring in on Monday for your coworkers for no reason – just because everyone appreciates a nice treat at work.
  • Invite a friend or co-worker to lunch/coffee/drinks/a weekend walk or run, and ask them questions about things going on in their lives during that time.  People appreciate having space to talk about their lives and feelings – allow them the freedom to talk about things that are important to them and show your support in the process.
  • Cook a healthy dinner for a someone whose schedule is super tight and you know it would make their lives easier.  Maybe a friend just became a new mother (read: cooking dinner is often not at the top of the “to do” list), or has been plagued with deadlines at work for many weeks, or is busy taking care of a sick elderly family member, or is struggling with loss of any kind in their own lives.  Friends are likely to feel a great sense of relief knowing that they have one less task to do that night.
  • Write a letter (yes, with a pen and a piece of paper…not email!) to a friend/family member with whom you haven’t talked in a while.  There’s something so special about holding a hand-written card in your hands that someone took the time to write just for you – a rare experience these days!  It sure beats bills and junk mail.

These suggestions are super-simple, but hopefully they spark ideas about other ways you can show kindness toward others in everyday moments.  You don’t have to wait for birthdays or holidays to show support for important people in you life – if you make it a more frequent event, then you might just change the norm for “being kind” in your small circle of family/friends – and those very small acts can have ripple effects that echo far beyond their point of origin.

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