Kindness, Week Six

My kindness project is still going pretty well! I am finding it easier and easier to be generous with others (which can be a bad thing because I'm stuck at home with a laptop, internet access, a memorized credit card number and about a hundred different ways to spend money to be nice to others, right off the top of my head.) Also, I don't believe in "karma" as most people think of it, but the fact that I am making a real effort to be more kind, and to practice kindness every day, has made me especially appreciative of the acts of kindness people do for me- which is neat! For example, last week I got a surprise delivery from Amazon.com: gift-wrapped packages containing a Swahili phrasebook and a complete beginners audio course in learning Swahili from my friend Zach. We sometimes talk about languages (he loves to study them) and I had mentioned the day before that if I was going to learn a new language, it would be Swahili. My sweet Said writes his letters in Swahili, and always gets so excited when I send him a Bible verse written in Swahili (God bless the internet and Bible Gateway!) I was so touched that I cried a little!

Anyway, here are my acts of kindness for the past week:

February 5: Gave my mom a tiny bottle of cake-scented hand sanitizer. Fun-smelling things are always exciting, and my mom likes cake!

February 6: Sent a birthday card to a Bible study friend.

February 7: Visited my friend Betty. Betty is in my Bible study group, but she doesn't attend when we meet in the cold weather months because of health problems. She has trouble breathing (and uses an oxygen tank), and she uses a motorized wheelchair to sit around. She has been stuck in her house for the past month, and I was so happy to see her! She actually lives within walking distance from my mom's house- if I still lived there I'd come visit her all the time. : )

February 8: Registered to be an organ donor. This is one of the simplest acts of kindness you can do! It's free, it's fast, and it benefits lots of people. A former schoolmate of mine passed away unexpectedly a few months ago. Her mom posted on facebook that she had registered to be an organ donor, and her "eyes, heart, valves, bones, tissue and skin" would be able to help 25-50 people! Fun fact: you can register to be an organ and tissue donor online, here. Don't forget to tell your family about this act of kindness!

February 9: Sent a small check to a facebook friend participating in the Polar Plunge, a fundraiser for the local chapter of the Special Olympics. Every little bit helps!

February 10: Gave a pretty bookmark with a nice Bible verse to my mother-in-law. "From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another." John 1: 16. You can never have enough bookmarks, and small surprises are fun! Plus, I think having verses written out on things like bookmarks helps us memorize them!

February 11: Sent an email to cousin Siena telling her I love her new house and bragging on her little boy Alexander. He is so smart! At a year and a half, he knows the planets- he has a little easy reader book about the planets and if you point to a picture of one of them, he can tell you which one it is. When I was a kid, I liked it when I did something good and someone told my mom or dad about it later. Kids like being bragged on, and parents like hearing it! They are doing a wonderful job raising their little kiddos, and I wanted them to know that.

All in all, it's been a pretty good week!