Wanting to do 365 acts of kindness in a year is a little
hard. When I gave myself this challenge, I knew it wasn't going to be easy. Honestly,
I don’t think I can think of 365 things to do. I’m not even sure why I wanted
to do this, except that it sounded like a good idea in my head.
One aspect that I didn't think about is, “What happens when
I am traveling?”
This came up on the first day of my challenge. I was walking
around Las Vegas, Nevada, visiting my friends, and was trying to think of
something I could do for someone else. I was in a really good mood because of
the holidays and was naturally smiling at complete strangers.
When I noticed that people were smiling back, I decided I
was going to try to smile at as many people as I could.
Being hyper aware of strangers, is a funny thing. As I
walked around, I tried to make eye contact with people. When they looked back, I
would smile. The reactions were funny. Facial expressions ran the gamut of
human emotions from confusion, happiness, a look of “you see me,” to gratitude.
Who knew you could see so much in a reciprocated smile.
Mother Teresa once said “Peace begins with a smile,” and I
couldn't agree more. Smiling is my first act of kindness this year and it might
just be one of the most powerful and yet simple acts I do all year.
So thank you to the beautiful people in Las Vegas, Nevada for helping me with my first act of kindness this year!
I just finished up doing this for 2013. I found times that it was really hard to come up with things but the truth is we do little things everyday and don't even think about them. Good luck in 2014. If you would like some ideas you can check out my blog but it seems you are off to a good start. Here is the address to mine if your interested. http://365randomactsofkindnessfor2013.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteThanks John. I appreciate the encouragement and the link. I'll have to check your site out. :)
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