Acts of kindness: Week One

Renee Obsidianwords's picture

Every week I am going to share ideas and thoughts on a campaign to spread kindness. I do this as a validation that you don't have to believe in a god to be 'nice' and 'friendly' not to mention make a positive impact in peoples lives. Beyond sharing ideas, I will be following each weeks focus through journal entries and sharing a recap of my experience at the weeks end.

Here is the focus for the week of 5-12-2008:

Be Kind to all You Associate With this week.

 

First lets look at a few definitions of 'Kind'

American Heritage:

  1. Of a friendly, generous, or warm-hearted nature.
  2. Showing sympathy or understanding; charitable: a kind word.
  3. Humane; considerate: kind to animals.
  4. Forbearing; tolerant: Our neighbor was very kind about the window we broke.
  5. Generous; liberal: kind words of praise.
  6. Agreeable; beneficial: a dry climate kind to asthmatics

Dictionary.com unabridged

  1. of a good or benevolent nature or disposition, as a person: a kind and loving person
  2. having, showing, or proceeding from benevolence: kind words.
  3. indulgent, considerate, or helpful; humane (often fol. by to): to be kind to animals.
  4. mild; gentle; clement: kind weather.
  5. British Dialect. loving; affectionate.

 

I interact with customers and employees all day long so this focus is something that I am very familiar with. The challenge will come outside of my job.... Until next week!

-Renee

 

  

 

Slowly building a blog at ~

http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/

Renee Obsidianwords's picture

The first week of my random

The first week of my random acts of kindness has ended and my focus to be genuinely kind to all that I encountered was met with some surprising results.

So, spending 40 hours a week with the public with a perma-grin has afforded me the persona of being friendly,  nice and kind. It has become second nature for me to smile to all I meet so when I took my smiley, friendly face outside of work into everyday places, I was surprised by what I experienced.

-people suspect you are up to something when you smile at them

-people don't always smile back

-When you help someone load their groceries into their car, don't expect much in return, not even eye contact

-Mowing your neighbors lawn doesn't always result in an over-exuberant thank you

-Picking up a child's sippy cup may not be seen as a kind gesture especially to a frazzled mother that has 4 screaming kids

On the flip side:

-Asking someone if they are okay when they seem in distress can make their day

-Offering to pay $1.25 to make up for a persons cash shortage in the grocery line is a cool thing to do

-Pulling the car over to help someone catch their sneaky little terrier that escaped can and does result in hugs

The effort put into seeking out these opportunities to be kind were not unreasonable. These simple things can be done at the mall, the grocery store, the gas station, your neighborhood...the list could go on. At no time did I feel the presence of a god or the need to thank any unseen deity for the chance to spread joy. At the end of the day that feels good!

-Renee

Slowly building a blog at ~

http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/