Random Acts of Kindness

This is the page to share your Random Acts of Kindness!

Just email me your story and I’ll post it here. Good luck! Denice

drmoffat@NaturalHealthTechniques.com

Reading the book Random Acts of Kindness gave me more ideas to expand on what I was already doing.

I noticed that when I asked someone what random acts of kindness they had received, often they did not even to compare to what I was doing. This part of the site belongs to you. Tell me what you received as a Random Acts of Kindness–something that meant so much to you that it brought tears to your eyes. I’ll add your story to the bottom of the list. If you have suggestions for the list, that counts for the contest drawing as well. I’m just a bit stuck here and I want this page to be a better resource for people who would like to start a Random Acts of Kindness wave but don’t know where to start.

Let’s start a Random Acts of Kindness wave!

• Show up for someone’s lecture to support them.
• Take some garden produce to a local café.
• Visit an elderly person.
• Mow someone’s lawn.
• Send someone a story that reminds them of good times.
• Tell someone what they mean to you.
• Drop off some handout flowers to someone who’s been noticeably upset or crying.
• Tithe talent, time, love or money to your community Donations Days.
• Say something nice about your competitor; after all you may not know the whole story.
• Take the neighbors kids for ice cream.
• Pay for somebody’s post office box that can’t afford a whole year.
• Wash someone’s windows.
• Bathe someone’s dog.
• Read to a child.
• Volunteer for a project.
• Be nice to a telemarketer.
• Shovel snow off a walk.
• Plant some wild flowers seeds alongside the road.
• Clean someone’s shower.
• Make a commitment to write 1 letter a month for 12 months to each of your family members.
• Take an elderly person somewhere they would like to go.
• Send someone who’s just had problems with their partner a piece of rose quartz.
• Give someone who’s had a death in the family a bottle of rescue remedy.
• Buy a pizza for the guys at Les Schwab tire during the first snowstorm season.
• Throw a surprise birthday party for someone.
• Teach a child a craft.
• Buy a sack of cat food for the neighborhood “cat lady” who is spending her social security on stray cats instead of feeding herself.
• Asking somebody, “Are you done with that?” when they know you are allergic to something but are chicken to throw it out when you’re at a social event.

I had a client tell me that his neighbor drives right past his house every week to take his trash to the end of their very long driveway. Now, this client of mine badly needed two hips replaced but was afraid to do it. Every little movement and lifting job was just agony for him. I asked him why he didn’t just ASK his neighbor if he could take his can down along with theirs. “Ahhhgh” he said as he waved his hand. I’m sure he neighbor would have been honored to help this man if he only knew. But some people don’t ask and some people don’t even notice that others are hurting.

Helpful Links & References for Random Acts of Kindness:

• Random Acts of Kindness Foundation: https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/
• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_act_of_kindness

Win a copy of Start Something that Matters. Enter your Random Acts of Kindness (doing or receiving one by the end of Jan 31, 2012 and win a copy. I’ll post your acts on this page. Good luck! Denice

Random Acts of Kindness Stories submitted for the book give-away contest Jan. 2012

Susan Thomas Perry  (12/31/11) A random acts of kindness occurred to me when I arrived in DC via Reagan Natl Airport and was nervous about the big city and crime and as I was trying to figure out how to purchase tickets for the Metro (subway train) a strange man suddenly bee lined it to me (I thought I was getting mugged already..not 2 steps out of the airport) He asked me if I could use these tickets he didn’t use because he was leaving DC. It was $15 worth of Metro tickets! Sure changed my perspective on DC. 😀

Jennifer Noble (12/31/11) I was inspired to have our family get involved with the Goodwill here.  They did a shoe give away to needy families in the area.  My husband helped fit the shoes and he was so excited to see the excitement the kids had over receiving them.  Some came with the same pair from the giveaway the year previous & they were definitely in need of replacement.  They didn’t allow children to help, so I stayed at home w/ the kids on a Saturday while he served others.  Thanks – Jennifer

Random act of kindness: Biker Angels at the Starbucks by Cathy Edwards.
I was at a Starbucks and my car wouldn’t start. It was getting near closing time and I was tempted to get a little anxious. There were some bikers at a nearby table. “Could you jump a car battery from a motorcycle?” I asked.  I had no idea. But spending the night at Starbucks was not an option;) Well not only did they attempt to jump my battery ,they diagnosed it. It wasn’t the battery, it was some electrical junction thing that wasn’t working. They pushed the car into the lot. One guy drove and two pushed that car up and down the lot until it started. Then came the driver switch, “Quick and keep the car going and don’t stop until you get home.” Not only did I make it home, my time at the mechanic was downright easy. Thank God for biker angels.

Random acts of Kindness: Snow Driving Lessons with Karen Jernstedt. Submitted 1/19/12  We’ve got about 14 inches of new snow here in Deary, Idaho which reminds me of an Act of Kindness bestowed upon me by the wife of my best friend in veterinary school.  I hope she’s enjoying the new snow in Coos Bay Oregon today where Karl and Karen own Morgan Veterinary Clinic.

Karen’s got this cute little cowgirl-type of accent and it’s fun to hear her talk. . .except for this day. She said to me, “Cmon. I’m going to teach you how to drive in the snow.”

NOT my highest priority. I’d already crashed my Chevy Malibu so many times I named the car Timex. She just took a lickin’ and kept on tickin’ she did.  Just the week before that the Chevy dealer said, “Look, if you’re going to get into another accident please don’t run into anything in this left front fender again. We can’t fix it anymore.” I had smashed that part of the car when somebody had run into me at a stoplight in the snow as he was unable to stop, and then again as I went off the road the very next week. Needless to say I was terrified now of driving in the snow, but Karen was adamant.

So she drove me over to the Moscow Palouse Empire Mall. Fortunately there weren’t many cars in the parking lot. “Now let me show you a few things,” she said as she stepped on the gas and then the brake. “Watch what I do with the steering wheel” she said as we fish-tailed first left and then right. I was hyperventilating but I trusted Karen. She seemed to know what she was doing and after all, this car was her prized possession. Why would she jeopardize her new paint job?

“Now let’s do something a little different.” She gunned it and got the car going at a pretty good clip across the parking lot then jammed on the brakes! “Oh my GOD!” I screamed.

We went spinning around- at least 360 degrees and maybe even more. I think my life flashed before my eyes but I couldn’t tell. We ended up buried in a huge pile of snow that the snow plow had left in the middle of the parking lot. “Why would ANYBODY want to drive in the snow?” I asked now shaking and wishing that I had some hard liquor at home to drink.

“Well,” she said with her cute little accent, “that’s the way it goes sometimes. It’s good that we’re only in a parking lot. Now get out and help me push this baby back onto the lot. Oh. . . and you don’t need to tell Karl about this, OK?”

Our snow lesson ended there but I learned a lot about driving in the snow that day. The next winter I went to the parking lot on my own—by myself–and, more slowly mind you, practiced fishtailing and touching the brakes. Of course that doesn’t help when you’re driving in black ice. Heck, you can turn the wheel however direction you want and you just go straight. . .but that’s another story.

Boomerang Kindness:

Video from KarmaTube

OK all, your names go in the hat for winning the book! Start a wave and thanks you all for sharing your own tales of Random Acts of Kindness.