I remember how uplifted I was the first time I saw a bumper sticker that displayed these words: “Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” It was in the mid-1980s and I had recently moved to Colorado. The words were on many cars in Boulder and I enjoyed being reminded to offer these efforts.
Actually, this phrase is attributed to Anne Herbert. She is said to have written it on a placemat in a California restaurant (in the early-1980s). Now there are millions of bumper stickers, a non-profit foundation and website (listed below), a Wikipedia page, and multiple internet references on how people can go about doing random kindness for one another. That’s a good thing.
Kindness is inherent in all humanity. We might need to be reminded about the importance of practicing it in our lives…on a regular and on-going basis. I’m fortunate to remember it every day. My life is filled with so many people doing Kind acts for one another. Sometimes I get to be the recipient of such Kindness and, at other times, I get to pay it forward. I find it the most fun when Kindness can be done for someone without them knowing who provided it…like a wonderful surprise gift!
I’ve noticed a few social media postings in past weeks where young adults are providing a number of acts of Kindness on their birthdays – one for each
of their years of life. A celebration of Kindness! As my years have significantly added up, I’m not sure I could do that many Kind acts all in one day. Thus, I’ve decided to do at least one or two purposeful ones EVERY day…in secret or otherwise…and see what effect it has on the people around me, whether I know them or not.
In order to get some ideas and not keep repeating the SAME Kind acts all the time, I visited a couple of websites for inspiration. And I was inspired!! You might be, too. Take a look at these and see what Kind acts come to your mind:
http://mashable.com/2013/10/21/random-acts-of-kindness/
http://www.randomactsofkindness.org/kindness-ideas
http://www.therandomact.org/getinvolved/randomacts/
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/26-random-acts-of-kindness
What I’ve noticed, is that when you start looking to see what Good you can do, what Kindness you can offer, you see more of that Good, more of God, showing up in your world. We don’t need to wait for the holidays before we send a donation, lend a hand, or offer a smile. People can use our help or just a Spiritual uplift any day. We can always do more.
The thing is, what you give out, comes back…in some manner…from somewhere. This is a reciprocal Universe; it works in circles. As you give, you receive. Give from your Divine Source those aspects of yourself that have no limit…such as Kindness…Joy…Love… and so forth. The only time such parts of you stop is because the human or ego part of you quits…because you think you’ve done enough or have no more to give. That’s not true. The God-self of you never stops wanting to do more Good.
Open your heart and your mind to the Kindness within you. Tap into that Source right now and Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty. You’ll be uplifted from the uplifting…I guarantee it.