Random Acts of Kindness

I know it has been about a month since I wrote...I am picking up spead now and will be writing multiple blogs in the next 30 days.

Today, I would like to remind everyone to Pay It Forward, not just in the spirit of this holiday season, but also in the spirit of Human Kind!

Many of us don't believe one person can really make a difference, I know because I used to be that person. I recently read a story out of Colorado...

In Colorado in the drive-thru of a Starbucks, the kindness of strangers became an epidemic. We have all seen the movie Pay-It-Forward...if you haven't, you MUST see it, not just because Jon Bon Jovi is in it, but because it is a moving and wonderful movie.

One day in Colorado, a person was paying for a $4+ coffee in the drive-thru of a Starbucks. After paying for her coffee, just before driving off, she handed the cashier an extra $5 and said she wanted to pay for the coffee of the car behind her....she never met the driver behind her!

When the car behind her pulled up to the window, the cashier handed the driver her order and said it was already paid for by the lady in front of her in line. The driver was so stunned, she said she wanted to pay for the driver behind her....once again, she never met the driver behind her either!

This is a reoccuring event at this Starbucks, which was in no way encouraged by Starbucks themselves. One employee said she has seen this run through 15 cars before it stopped.

I encourage everyone, preferably every day but at least once a week, to look deep inside of yourself and find a way that you can put a smile on the face of a stranger. This, without you profiting in any way and without you receiving any recognition. A true annonymous random act of kindness. This should be something beyond giving a donation to a charitable organization, rather something to impact one person immediately and directly.

If someone says, "How can I thank you?" You should say, "No thanks is necessary, just Pay-It-Forward."

Do you want to put a smile on someone's face? Try one or more of these small ideas, of course you can always expand on them:

1) pay for coffee of the person behind you in line
2) buy an extra movie ticket for a stranger at the box office
3) give $10-$20 to the cashier towards the groceries of the person behind you in line
4) put an extra quarter in a parking meter as you walk by
5) let someone go ahead of you in line even though you were there first
6) give an apple to a homeless person on the street without saying a word
7) when you get flowers from someone, take one out of the vase and hand it to a stranger on the street and say "have a nice day" then walk away
8) ladies, open a door for a man instead of the other way around

Post a comment to this blog if you have additional ideas of random acts of kindness that you would like to share.

~Dawn