Random Acts of Kindness

Random Acts of Kindness

Random/Intentional Acts of Kindness

" Spend half an hour in a hospital emergency room and do one random act of kindness that presents itself.

" Offer to help people who could use the assistance to cross streets - seniors, the blind, small children …

" Plant a tree in your neighborhood.

" The next time someone speaks to you, listen deeply without expecting anything.

" Yes, it's a drag, but why not put your shopping cart back in its appointed place in the parking lot?

" Write a note to the boss of someone who has helped you, thanking him or her for having such a great employee.

" Open the phone book and select a name at random and send that person a greeting card.

" Hold a Random Acts of Kindness Party where everyone tells the stories of kindnesses in their life.

" Walk around with an instamatic camera and take people's pictures and give them to them.

" Bring a little beauty into sterile places - drop off a geranium plant at a police station or a cutting from a houseplant to your local fire station.

" When someone is trying to merge into your lane in traffic, let him in - and why not smile and wave while doing it!

" As you go about your day, why not pick up the trash you find on the sidewalk?

" Write a card thanking a service person for his or her care and leave it with your tip. Be sure to include a very specific acknowledgement: "I appreciate the careful way you cleaned the room without disturbing my things"; "Your smile as you served me dinner really made my day."

" On Thanksgiving, call up everyone you know and ask them what they are thankful for so they can feel their own gratitude.

" Give another driver your parking spot.

" Visit a neighbor with a bouquet of flowers for no reason at all.

" Send a letter to a teacher you once had letting her or him know about the difference they made in your life.

" Ask an older person to tell you a story about his or her youth, such as what her favorite song was and why, or how he met his spouse.

" Let the person behind you in line at the grocery store go ahead of you.

" Order a mail-order gift, anonymously, for a friend or someone at work who needs to be cheered up.

" Make an anonymous donation to some local charity that is actively helping people - feeding the homeless, providing foster care for children, The Red Cross, and so on. Or start a fund-raising drive in your office for such organizations.

" Bake a pie and leave it on someone's doorstep.

" Slip a $20 bill into the pocketbook of a needy friend (or stranger).

" Organize your friends and coworkers to gather their old clothes and give them to homeless people or a charity.

" Go to an AIDS hospice or hospital ward and see what you can do for one person.

" If someone in your neighborhood leaves on a trip and forgets to stop the newspaper, pick them up and put them in a safe out-of-view spot.

" Next time you go to the movies, pick out someone behind you in the line and tell the ticket seller you want to pay for their ticket as well. Make sure to ask that they not reveal who paid for their ticket.

" If you know someone who is going through a bad day or a difficult time in life, make it better by doing something - anything - to let him or her know someone cares… and don't let on who did it!

" Laugh out loud often and share your smile generously.

" Praise the work or attitude of a person you work with to someone else in the office in a time, place, and manner that is outside of all office politics.

" Buy gift certificates - for a kids' clothing store, a record store, whatever suits your mood - and find a way to get them, anonymously, to people you think could really use them.

" If there is a yard or garden you pass frequently and enjoy, stop by one day and leave a note letting the occupants know how much pleasure their garden gives you.

" All of you reading these words have loved someone, have done someone a kindness, have healed a wound, have taken on a challenge, have created something beautiful, and have enjoyed breathing the air of existence. Never doubt how precious, how vitally important you are. Every moment you make a difference. So, today, appreciate yourself as a random act of kindness.