Random Acts of Kindness Week Feb 15th-21st. Can Kindness Have Benefits?
Posted: Tuesday, February 09, 2010
by Fran Larson
http://www.franniesquotes.com/
This week I was doing some shopping. One of the salesgirls made a rude comment to me while ringing up my sale. She seemed uncaring and distant. I felt unappreciative of that undeserved comment and thought about what I should have answered back to her.
This department store is awesome. I have been going there for years. There is a free gift wrap policy, no matter how little money you spend. I put my gifts on the counter to be wrapped and sat in one of ther comfortable chairs. I then heard one of the managers talking about the girl who had been rude to me. They were saying they knew something was wrong with her, as she was shaking all over. My anger melted at that moment, as I began to wonder what could be wrong. Had she just received some devastating news? Was she in some kind of trouble or maybe she just found out she had a terrible illness?
My point is, we never know what is going on inside another person's mind. I used to work in a doctor's office. The doctor always told me when someone was grumpy or out of sorts, they were really afraid. I am telling myself to be patient and kind in the midst of a troubling world and many personal hurts.
February 15-21st is Random Acts of Kindness Week . It seems clear enough that people should be kind every day, not just during one week of the year. However, Random Acts of Kindness Week is designed to give those who are not currently aware of Random Acts of Kindness a chance to experience the joy of passing along kindness. The week’s purpose is to raise awareness about kindness and to invite people to give and receive kindness daily. (actsofkindness.org)
I discovered a wonderful web site. It is www.actsofkindness.org/. This site not only encourages kindness, it provides a free ideas for classrooms, so that a teacher may share with the world a " kindness " project the children are doing. There are free ideas for kindness projects for communities, schools, and many other catagories. It's all there for you.
'Helping contributes to the maintenance of good health, and it can diminish the effect of diseases and disorders both serious and minor, psychological and physical.” The individuals in the study said they had a rush of euphoria, followed by a longer period of calm, after performing a kind act. These feelings released stress and produced endorphins. Thus, the long lasting effect was an improved emotional state of mind.
Maybe kindness could even be catching. Wouldn't that be exciting? Yes, I know I am just a never-give-up Pollyanna.
Just let your mind go crazy and think about it for a minute. Think how just the flap of a butterfly in another country can affect us!
" The flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil can set off a storm in Texas. Isn't that an amazing statement? Physicists call this theory " The Butterfly Effect " to explain how the breeze produced by a butterfly's wings could set of a series of reverberations that over time have a tremendous affect on weather patterns thousands of miles away. Now imagine the impact of millions of butterflies... " (From Care2.com).
I wonder if kindness could be like the butterfly's wings and could set a series of reverberations that over time have a tremendous effect on other individuals, even thousands of milds away...imagine that.
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
John Lennon
I too hope one day we can all live as one in peace in God's house. I will be using your suggestion not jusst this week but all the time. I also liked what you said about realizing that the other person who may have offended you, could be going through it. I am a type 1 diabetic and just 3 weeks ago fell to 23! Thank God that Mark knew to check my sugar instead of letting me just take a nap in a sweat. I was out and he poured the orange juice just in time. Okay so now I am rambling.Blessings,MichelleMichelle
Nice article. Jesus admonished that we "do unto others, as we would have others do unto us." If we would all do that it would create a dominoe effect, the same way the butterfly wings had a dominoe effect. The movie "It's a Wonderful Life," reminds us how important each of us is in the chain of human events.
Yes, we have no idea what someone else is going through. And sometime you and your actions/reactions might be what that person needs to break through and see hope or Jesus!
