My grandma used to say, “Boredom is a choice. So, if you don’t know what to do one day, help someone.”
The beginning of a school year is often consumed with activities centered around getting organized, becoming familiar with your district, your students and navigating the “organized chaos” of schedules. It is also a great time to harness the sparks of new energy and channel it in a way that promotes kindness and the things that we can do for others including our family, friends, colleagues, and community.
I’ve learned that kindness takes shape in many forms and while traditionally we think of the holiday season as the perfect time to open our hearts, I like to stress the act of giving all year round, especially when it’s through an act from the heart, instead of money.
Kindness is in all of us. The student who stops to hold the door open for a teacher with her hands full. The commuter who offers their bus seat to an elderly passenger. The parking attendant who leaves a note on someone’s car, complimenting their parking skills. The satisfaction of knowing you’re doing something to make someone happy is rewarding enough for acts of kindness, but what’s really incredible about a simple act is that it is contagious. A little act of caring spreads more and that is all it takes to start a movement. One person’s kindness inspires another’s.
So many of us have the hearts and motivation to care enough to spread kindness, but we tend to get busy and distracted with social media, after school activities, chores and family obligations that while the intentions are there, our execution falls a little short. It’s true; one small act can change the world. One act can remind everyone around them how much love there is out there and inspire hope and generosity with their actions as much as their words.
Want to give a Random Act of Kindness to someone but don’t know where to begin? Below is a list of good deeds for that extra bit of inspiration to get you started and remind you how easy it is to make someone’s day.
- Leave a couple quarters in a vending machine.
- Slip a note of inspiration in a book at the store for the purchaser to find.
- Let someone cut in front of you in line who has more items than you.
- Double what you are making for dinner and text a friend that you’re bringing a meal over.
- Pull the neighbor’s trash bin up on garbage day.
- Return someone’s shopping cart from the parking lot.
- Compliment a stranger.
- Give away your parking spot.
- Leave bottles of bubbles at the park for families to enjoy.
- Leave coloring books and crayons in a hospital waiting room.
