Happy World Kindness Day!
Part of me wishes that
there wasn’t a “special day” set aside for kindness around the world, that
instead, it was an everyday occurrence.
But I guess if we have Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, National Donut Day
and all of the rest – we should have a day set aside to think about kindness,
too!
I celebrated World Kindness
Day in a few different ways.
First – instead of the “poll
of the day” that I put out daily on our corner, I put out a small box with
paper and writing instruments inside.
Where the poll usually goes, I put a note explaining that it is World
Kindness Day, and asking people to write a note explaining something kind they have
done and leave it in the box. Two people
participated (I do not know who). Of
course, I wish more would have been curious and brave enough to stop and get
involved, but on a very cold Sunday, two is a good turn-out. They wrote:
-
“If you read this,
please be good with your inner child and be happy“
and
-
“Working on my
health. Trying to be kind to
myself! Note: Happy Holidays!”
And actually, now that I examine
the notes, I think they both have the same handwriting. That means only one person was curious and
brave enough to stop and participate.
Thank you, whoever you are! I am
very thankful that you joined in.
Another thing I did in
honor of World Kindness Day was buy 10 big holiday tins of popcorn to hand
out. You know the ones – the trio of
white popcorn, caramel, and cheese. Yummy! We had to go to 4 or 5 different stores to
find them, but Target to the rescue!
My plan was to hand them
out randomly to people stopped at the red light in front of our house. But…
By the time we finished everything else we had planned for the day and
got home for popcorn time, it was dark.
And very cold.
But I would not let that
stop us!! (I say “I” because I think my
partner David would have preferred if I said, “Ya know, let’s just extend World
Kindness Day into tomorrow, when it is warmer and sunny…”) Nope!
We stood out in the dark and gave away 10 big popcorn tins.
That sounds like an easy
task, but it was not!! First – not a
lot of traffic tonight. Second – did I mention
it was dark out?? Third – see above,
really cold! And fourth – well,
let’s just say that not everyone was excited about the popcorn as I was!! 😊
People. Are.
Suspicious. And rightfully so, I guess. I mean, this is a dangerous world
sometimes. So, when a woman in a
stocking cap and pink fluffy vest walks up to your car window smiling, waving,
and holding a tin of popcorn up – some people choose to not engage. They behave in several different ways: pretend you are not there (eyes firmly glued
to the stoplight ahead of them), look and shake their head “no” even though
they have no idea what the question is, LOCK THEIR DOORS (click!) as you stand on
the sidewalk waving (awwwk-ward!), or crack their window open to listen to your
spiel then say a quiet, “No thank you”. Oh,
there was also the guy that David approached who said, “I am an atheist”. Hahahaha – ooookkkkk…. But we aren’t offering you a religious item
here, sir! It’s popcorn. Also,
the last time I checked, kindness was agnostic and not in the least bit religious.
But SOME PEOPLE – the fun
ones, the lucky ones – THEY GET INTO IT!
They might be suspicious at first, but when they roll down their window
and hear, “Hi!!! It is WORLD KINDNESS
DAY! To celebrate, we are handing out
popcorn! It is really tasty – 3 flavors –
regular, cheese, and caramel! This is
for you! Happy World Kindness
Day!!” – when they hear that – they SMILE BACK at you! They might say, “Really???” or “Wait, huh???”. But when you explain it again, they reach for
the popcorn and thank you genuinely.
They smile and wave as they drive away.
Yeah, those people rock.
I really liked giving the popcorn
tins to two bus drivers. They were so
happy! One was so willing to let us
board his bus and chat that he sat parked at the light through a while light
cycle, trapping the cars behind him. It
is a miracle no one honked. We also gave
one to a bus rider who was sitting up front – he was happy, too!
 |
| On the bus |
Kindness Activist funds
spent: $116.49
Another kind action we did
today was give a neighbor something that she had wished for in a neighborhood
chat. She asked for a juicer, and the
photo she showed of the one she hoped for is the exact same one we have. I took that as a sign! We delivered her the juicer and a big bag of
oranges tonight. I bet she has a fresh
cup of OJ with her breakfast tomorrow!
Kindness Activist funds
spent: $35.01
We are expecting our first
hard freeze this week, so we picked all the remaining vegetables from the
garden today. While we were in a grocery
store later (hunting for the popcorn tins…), I saw a big table of fresh produce
that was on sale for $1 a bag! And it
looked as pretty as the produce we had just picked out of our garden!! So, I grabbed 2 bags – 4 yellow peppers, 2
tomatoes, a red onion, and a container of mushrooms – for the Little Yellow
Pantry. Fresh produce is always
appreciated by visitors because it is usually so expensive to buy at the store!
Kindness Activist funds
spent: $2.05
That’s it for this
update. More to come!
