Random acts of kindness are contagious.
How blessed are we…Random Acts of Kindness Week and Valentine’s Day in the same week…that just begs for a kindness challenge, wouldn’t you agree???
Before I sat down to write this post, I went to Google to read several articles about the origins of Valentine’s Day. Well, one thing I now know for sure…nobody knows the real reason we celebrate this holiday…I read stories about bloody battles, a roman festival called Lupercella and Cupid. I also read that the holiday is the result of Roman and Christian traditions. Then there is the story of the Cleric named Valentine. Well, you get the point…For the most part, we don’t really know why we celebrate February 14th as Valentine’s Day!
But when it comes to love and kindness, shouldn’t every day be Valentine’s Day? Yep, I vote for every day to be filled with love, kindness and compassion. But the card and flower and chocolate companies would have us believe that Valentine’s Day is just for lovers and romantic couples…well, I say PPPSSSHHH…I don’t think so!
There are so many forms of love and kindness
that need to be celebrated, right?
For example, the love between a parent and child or the love between siblings or the love between a human and an animal or between two (or more) friends just to name a few… Don’t get me wrong, romantic love is a wonderful experience and I hope that everyone gets to share that kind of love at least once in a lifetime.
But I know that all of you reading this are already thinking about all of the other kinds of love you experience in your lives every day. Those are the relationships that we need to be celebrating each day.
Sooo…I am challenging everyone reading this today to think about the ways that they would like to show kindness to those they love all this week. For that matter, let’s throw in a challenge to show love and kindness to people we might not know…that’s why they call it “Random” Acts of Kindness, right????
Random Acts of Kindness are an awesome way to teach our kids about love and compassion for others. School principals, classroom teachers and families can all create and carry out random acts of kindness every day of their lives in so many ways.
I challenge all of you to take a few minutes to sit down and write out a few ideas. Talk with your kids, your friends, your students and your teachers about it. Then, decide on how best to put those ideas into action this week.
What’s that you say –
too much effort?
Uh oh… I am sensing that some of you may be getting a little overwhelmed by the thought of having to plan and execute some big elaborate plans. STOP THAT THINKING RIGHT NOW! It’s way easier than you might imagine to create simple and fun ways to show people know how much you care. Just to prove my point, I’m putting some ideas down right here for you to think about this week (and every week). Start here and just see where you can go from here.
- Leave your kids a “love” post it somewhere they won’t expect to find one
- Pay for the order of the person behind you in line
- Bring magazines you no longer read to a hospital waiting room and leave them on the table
- Bring treats to a retirement home and leave them at the front desk
- Donate items you don’t use anymore to a charitable organization
- Smile at every person you see today. Say “Good Morning” or “Have a nice day”
- Help someone with a chore they don’t like to do
- Create a list (or a drawing) of the 5 things you are most grateful for in your life
- Leave random “love” letters in unexpected places while you are out doing errands. (For help with this one, check out my friend Nicole Ahr’s website and blog at TheLoveLetterLibrary.com. She has the stop, drop and love down cold and she can help you get connected to it too!
I would love to hear from you about your experience doing Random Acts of Kindness for the rest of the week. Please take photos and share your experiences with me in the comments below.
Happy valentine’s day, everybody!
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