Acts of kindness...

Sunday Morning CBS had a great piece last weekend on a young man who saw a person (another man) on the internet who had been paralyzed and without knowing this man at all, the young guy started a fund raising effort to purchase a device that would get the paralyzed man to walk again--a cost of $80,000.  The two had never met but the young man doing the fund raising told the reporter that he had no idea why but he felt a calling.  Today the paralyzed man is walking with the aid of his device, courtesy of a stranger's "calling" and unconditional love.

The Today Show has had a number of clips on acts of kindness recently and people who have done good things for others, many of whom are strangers to them.

My pal Kathryn (we are not close friends -- more like acquaintances -- but I would do anything for her if she asked because she has such a wonderful soul) recently posted on Facebook that she challenged her peeps to commit to being kind until 12/26.  Nothing more than just being kind.  If I remember right 64 of us committed to that and I was heartfelt in that.

Doesn't seem that hard does it?  JUST. BE. KIND.

And then I ended up on the phone with AT&T for more than 4 hours yesterday about them giving away my username and account security.  The umpteenth call in the last 3 months that totaled nearly 18 hours of calls with them.  OOPS, dropped the ball on that commitment...  Can I have a do-over?

My hometown paper published a letter from a 78 year-old widow on Social Security who had had her purse stolen in the grocery store by a 20-something young woman who engaged her in a distracting conversation and then stole her purse with all the money she had in it.  The widow's letter told the young woman she hoped she needed that money because it was all she had and she would have gladly given it to her if she needed it...she didn't need to steal it.

The letter ended up creating a group of people who started an online fund raiser that netted (if I remember correctly) $900 for the widow.

JUST. BE. KIND.

Then I read a post about a young man in Oregon who was in line on Black Friday at Cabela's to get a pair of free boots.  The man in front of him had to leave the line because he was ill from his radiation treatments and needed to go home because he was too sick to remain there.  That put the young man in the position ahead of him and got the boots. The young man took to Facebook and then his local TV station trying to locate the gentleman who was ill so he could give him the voucher for the boots.  The TV station AND Cabela's came through, located the gentleman and gave them BOTH boots, socks and each a gift card.

As it would happen, since I am on Facebook a lot (I work from home, it's social interaction ... and enough people have given me shit and deleted me for it so don't go there...) I saw the post from the  young guy who was trying to find the older gentleman and sent the post out into space to see if he could be located.  I shared it in hopes of helping, but I also sent the young man a message and asked if he had found him yet since the post was about a week old.

The young man sent me a note within about 5 minutes telling me that he had and the TV station helped and filmed the reunion at Cabela's and how excited he was to help this man.  This amazing young man sent me a friend request and chatted with me for about 20 minutes telling me about his excitement in helping someone and how he puts his life out there to do just those types of things.  He asked if we could stay in touch ... you never know who you can help.

How true...

I crossed the street from a cone at DQ one night on a 4th of July many years ago and by the time I returned to the car we ended up with a beautiful girl and a sweet, blind dog.  The sweet pup was our Chico that I have written here about and my sweet girl, my Becky, is now the proud parent of 3 amazing kids and has a Master's degree in Marriage and Family counseling and was on the dean's list more semesters than I can remember.  She was sitting on a curb in a parking lot waiting out the meth rage of her then-boyfriend.  I never gave it a second thought as I ran across the street, but she and I have wondered aloud what would have become of her and Chico had I not.

This morning as I started in the door to the local YMCA for a spin class at the crack of dawn, an elderly gentleman was struggling to get his membership card out of his bag.  Didn't take but a small movement and the two of us fished it out of the bottom and got him in.

JUST. BE. KIND.

Why do we need Christmas and this time of year to put it into play?  Kathryn is kind and wonderful every day but why did we need her challenge to at least get to 12/26 to be kind?  Why do we not see it every day?  Why can't we DO IT every day?  Even just once a day.  Something small...may seem insignificant to us but mean the world to others.

We are coming up to a New Year...the king of do-overs.  Instead of diets, commit to one act of kindness a day.  Some days it will be huge, some days seem minuscule.  But consciously do it at least once a day.

Imagine the possibilities!

Imagine if we could get Donald to do it...  OK I was going big there and trying to attempt the impossible.

Once a day.  JUST. BE. KIND.

And here for your heartwarming pleasure is Brian meeting the man who he wanted to have the boots. You are a role model my new friend and I'm honored to have you in my posse :)

Happy New Year.  JUST. BE. KIND.  Once a day...


http://www.kezi.com/news/Springfield_Man_Reunited_with_Rightful_Gift_Winner.html