One question for you: Do you think the world needs more kindness?
Sheri at The Loopy Ewe does a Random Act of Kindness series of blog posts each year near the end of December and it got me to thinking about how a small act of kindness can mean a lot to someone and if a whole lot of people did it, it would make a huge difference! I committed to doing at least one RAK each week during this year. Some weeks I will tell you what I did and some weeks I will prefer to keep it private.
I’ve always heard that when you do something for someone else, as the giver, you receive a blessing also. I never thought much about it but yesterday we were at Wal-Mart. We had a lot of stuff . . it took two carts to get it all out. It’s amazing how much more room “healthy foods” take up . . not to mention how much more they cost! I can see why people eat junk food, simply because of the cost.
I was putting the groceries from our cart onto the checkout counter and Vince was on the other end putting the bags into the carts. There was a lady and her husband behind us. She was in one of the electric rolling cart things. I had seen her up and down the aisles while I was shopping. Her husband was with her but had walked away while they were waiting to check out. Once our groceries had moved forward and there was room on the counter, I asked her if she wanted me to put her groceries on the counter and she was happy that I was willing to help. She told me that her husband had gone to the restroom and would be right back and thanked me for helping. I asked her how she wanted things on the counter because I’m real picky about the order in which my stuff gets bagged. She wanted cold things first so I did that.
I put all her stuff on the counter for her and then her husband walked up. He thanked me too . . and it was time for us to leave.
In their cart, it was all frozen microwave type food . . no fresh veggies, no meats. Lots of cookies, a few cake mixes .. no fresh fruit. At first, I was thinking how different the items in her cart were from our cart and then I thought . . she probably can’t stand in the kitchen and cook, and then wash up all the pots and pans. It’s probably so much easier for her to pop something in the oven or microwave and call it done.
I left the store feeling very blessed that I still have my health and am still able to run outside across to the shop and put food in the smoker, or go outside and start a fire in the grill and grill out there. I’m blessed (and so is Vince!) that I love to cook and don’t mind spending hours in the kitchen. I’m blessed that someone posted on my friend’s FB page about the Grain Brain book, and that I started reading it and one book turned into two and three and now we’re eating healthy and hopefully have had a life change! I’m blessed that we can afford to buy the fresh vegetables and fruits.
Blessings are always great but I wonder how many blessings we receive and don’t even realize it. I would never have realized how blessed I am until I helped that lady with her groceries so helping her helped me more . . helped me to be thankful for the all those things listed above.
RAK 2014
I challenge you to do random acts of kindness, if you aren’t already. I made myself a little spreadsheet to keep up with it and make sure I stay on track. I already know what I’m doing for this week!
shirley says
Yesterday with 2 inch’s of snow on the ground I had decided that it would be a quiet day with lots of piecing of a quilt. The phone rang and a woman wanted to know if she and daughter could bring out a quilt for me to quilt. Well if you can then come on. Well they wanted a tour of the sewing room then a show and tell of my quilts. It ended up being two hours of teaching but it helped the young girl. It was her first quilt that she brought out a t shirt quilt honoring her fireman husband. She got t shirts from all over the US by posting a request on the internet. Anyway I was nice to them It didn’t cost me anything and it seemed to help the younger one.
Sherrill says
I like that idea, Judy. I will try to do more myself as well. As far as blessings go, I know we overlook SO many blessings in our lives all the time. Since Frank passed away, I often wonder how many of my friends realize how blessed they are to still have their wonderful husbands, their best friends, still around. I know I didn’t appreciate Frank as much as I should have.
Nolene says
Sounds like you are off to a great start. I try to do an anonymous RAK at least once a month plus the regular RAK. If everyone did more RAK, it would definitely be a better place.
Vickie VanDyken says
Love it! Thanks for the reminder. It is easy to forget in our busy lives. I agree that being a giving person and doing RAK usually results in receiving more than we give 🙂 Thankfully God seems to be in control.
Susan says
Very good post, Judy. It seems to me that I can never do something for someone else without being twice as blessed in return. It amazes me how that works.
Diana in RR,TX says
The smallest things can sometimes mean the most – even taking someone’s grocery cart back to the store especially to a Mother with little ones or anyone else for that fact.We all get so engrossed sometimes in our lives that we just forget that one small gesture on our part can brighten someone’s day!
robin crittenden says
Its wonderful to help others and get no recognition for it. The one that matters knows.
I do think you and Vince are blessed with so many things and good health is the most important. I have many bad parts and its a struggle but except for outdoors I keep on. Sad to say my gardening is mostly over because of my back.
Sheri says
Love your spreadsheet idea. I’m going to copy that!
Kay Sorensen says
Once one makes RAK a way of life (just like making healthy eating a way of life) a spread sheet will no longer be necessary.
Good luck along the path.
Sandi says
Several years ago I was lined up behind an elderly lady who was carefully counting out coins to play for her purchase. She was short a small amount, less than $2.00 as I recall. The store owner told her to pay him the next time she came and packed up the purchase so she could go.
I told him when it was my turn to take what she owed and add it to my purchase. He sai no, she would pay the next time it was alright. I asked again and said that this way she would have a bit more to spend. He agreed with a smile.
Sandy says
When I was in Walmart yesterday I wanted a couple of cans of light kidney beans. Another customer came along and said that’s what she was looking for, too. The shelf with the beans we wanted was at my eye level or a little higher, but all I could see were cans of dark kidney beans, so I reached way back on the shelf and found some light ones hidden behind them. I handed a can to the other woman. She said she wanted another, so I got one more and gave it to her. I groped again in back of the dark kidney bean cans and pulled out 2 more light while she waited to see if there were enough for both of us to have two. She was too short to reach where I could, but with my help she got her beans and I got mine, too! It always pays to do something nice for someone else.
Rosalie says
Thanks for the reminder Judy! It is so true that we are blessed more than the recipient of the RAK. We do need a kinder and more considerate world and can make it happen one act at a time!
CindyM says
We need more kindness in this world, period. Both planned and random! I’ve had a conversation with several of my friends about raising children, and what single trait we feel responsible to foster in our kids. I never hesitate to say Kindness. Others say things like responsibility, love for learning, trustworthy, etc. But I stand by kindness as being the most important trait.
Norece says
Thanks for the reminder…..
Linda in NE says
Having one’s health is the greatest gift of all. If one needs more money to live there’s always a way to earn it as long as we’re healthy enough to earn it. As long as we’re healthy we can help others and pursue whatever makes us happy. Once the good health is gone one’s outlook can be pretty bleak. I’m more one to give help instead of needing it, so my wish for the rest of my life is to stay healthy enough to take care of myself and then when it’s my time I simply want to not wake up some morning.
Sherri says
A dear friend of mine, who is now deceased, used to call the kinds of blessings that you are wondering about that we never realize are even there, “Mr. Magoo blessings”. If you remember the old Mr. Magoo cartoons, you will recall that he would go through life blind, just missing all the mayhem that was following along behind him. I think we all have lots of Mr. Magoo blessings and are totally oblivious. Something to think about, for sure!
Julie in WA says
Or how about RARs…Random Acts of Responsibility! Basically, it is doing the responsible thing when someone else has failed to be responsible.
For example…someone leaves a cart in a parking space so no one else can park there. RAR! I will move the cart to a corral or take it to the store.
OR the garbage in the women’s restroom is full, so everyone just dumps their towels on the ground. RAR! Using a clean paper towel, I pick up the ones on the floor, adding them to the overflowing bin, which I then stuff all the way to the bottom. Lots of room in the bin now!
If everyone acted responsibly the first time, there would be no trash on the sides of the roads, store shelves would stay orderly so all can find the right items in the right spot, etc.
Some people would call me OCD, but it does not control me. Instead I think of how it makes life easier and more pleasant for the next guy!
Terri says
Our financial situation took a serious downturn several years ago, and we live now on a very tight budget, just barely making ends meet. We often get offers of help from friends and family members, and it was really hard for us to be in that position. A woman I admire very much told me to learn to accept help gracefully, because when you allow someone to help you, the act of helping blesses them as much as it blesses you. I try to remember that now, to accept help with grace, and to offer help with grace when I can. I must now use an Amigo cart to shop and can only shop in stores that have them, and I am often offered help reaching something or unloading my purchases, and loading them in to the back of my car. I am able to do those things myself, given enough time and patience, but I am always appreciative of offers of help.
Rina says
I’ve always known that what you give comes back to you tenfold and I just had an amazing example happen to me. I’m disabled from a rare birth defect and am on a limited income. I had heard about the million pillowcase challenge and having spent weeks at a time in the hospital during most every year of my life I knew how depressing it could be so decided to make as many pillowcases as I could. I used coupons,sales and cleaned out my stash of any children and teens fabric but I had so much fun. Not only was it fun to get the most for my money but also thinking about how happy the kids would be while I sewed each pillowcase. I managed to make 80 of them.
Last month one of the blogs I follow had a post about the pillowcase challenge and I left a comment about making 80 pillowcases, not saying anything about my financial situation, just that I had made them. Three days later I received an email from American Patchwork & Quilting saying they had seen my comment about the pillowcases and asking if they could donate some fabric so I could make more. I couldn’t believe it, it was totally out of the blue! They sent me three big boxes of fabric and I am now making more pillowcases. All I did was make some pillowcases to brighten up a child’s day and in return received enough fabric to make at least fifty more. How amazing is that! I gave a little and received so much more.
I plan to keep doing RAK as often as I can simply because it makes me feel good to know that even if it’s something as simple as putting groceries on counter the person you do it for so appreciates it.
Joan says
Your right, it gets to be a habit if you just hold a door open for someone, or as happened yesterday there was an elderly lady trying to lift a bag of cat food into her car. Stopped and said I would help and she was so surprised that I would offer. Didn’t take anything at all for me to take those two minutes to help her get it into her car, but hopefully gave her a lift. Then took her cart back to the cart park.
Marie Gilkey says
Like so many others, finances are really strapped, but people that know i sew and give to others all the time give me fabric they no longer want or need. It helps me to pass on to others that need pillowcases or quilts. Always try to give at least one quilt when a family around here loses to a fire. Never know when it might come in handy.
Gale says
Judy and other posters, you are so right about feeling blessed when you do Random acts of Kindness. I try to do them every chance I get. Two years ago just before Christmas on the day I brought my husband home from open heart surgery, I fell and broke my arm about 5 minutes after getting him home. My quilt guild friends and many other friends were so good to me. They organized and brought us dinner every day for 3 weeks! One friend cleaned my house every week. They knew Joe couldn’t do anything and I couldn’t do much with one hand. I swore right then that I would pay it forward every moment I could and I do. I don’t need to keep track. I just do it so much all the time and I am so blessed over and over again.
Jerzydeb says
I often do RAK – not only because they make me feel so good inside, but it sets a wonderful example to my kids – and hopefully they’ll be better people when they are older. A few weeks ago our swim team had an away meet in Lancaster, PA. 4 parents, 4 teenagers – 2 separate tables. The teenagers naturally gravitate to a claw machine, and come back – each one holding a stuffed animal. At the table behind them – there was the cutest baby – maybe 1 ? Not talking yet – but able to wave. She waved every now and then at them. The kids got up, and each offered their stuff animal to the baby, and let her choose which one she wanted, which she did – and proceeded to put it directly in her mouth. The kids sat down to finish their meal, and I could tell that this baby’s mom and her grandmom had never seen such an action from a group of teenagers. When it was time to pay, I picked up their check as well. It wasn’t much – but they were more than grateful. We got some pictures with their baby and our kids – and even though our kids rocked the swim meet – the memory I took away was that these kids are growing up to be people I’d like to be friends with. You never know who is watching you when you do a RAK. You never know what it might influence. Judy – you do so many small things for others – each by itself could be considered a RAK each day !
Ida in central PA says
Pastor Dan challenged us to something similar this week, only it involved our wallets.
One of the youth leaders thought why make it ‘one’ week … why not spread it out over several weeks — and honestly, it’s easier to give smaller amounts each week than to give one large amount — and created a Facebook event called the “Alex Project” (after Alexander Hamilton) — which will run 10 weeks.
It has been rewarding to see the youth embrace this idea, and to watch it spread through their friends and family. One little church in Central PA … and hundreds if not thousands of lives touched. 🙂
Diana says
Random acts of kindness can be a small as a smile. One of my co-workers told me that I make her smile when she thinks of me and her day is better. I always have a joke; or something to tell when I go in. We all get to laughing, joking and then their day is better.
We have helped quite a few people in 2013, with RAK and it makes us feel good/blessed and so glad we are who we are.
Maybe one day RAK will be a thing of everyday life.
Evelyn Starfishy says
I think that by being kind, you are setting a good example to children. I brought my son to the movies last week. It was totally sold out and lots of people are so impatient… and then there was a man – pushing his son in a wheelchair while trying to hold on to 2 sodas and a popcorn. No one even bothered to help. I did – even with my horrible German I was able to have a friendly chat and followed him to the “wheelchair” section before getting our own seats. I don’t understand why people don’t help! In Austria, you actually get assigned movie seats so it isn’t even like you would loose a prime seat by taking a few seconds to help someone else out either. If we are all a little kinder the world would be a better place. Cheers! Evelyn
Linda says
I definitely think the world needs more RAK. I work on it as often as I can. My motto is: Humankind: be both.
Mel Meister says
Ever since I was a recipient of a RAK as a young pregnant woman, I have tried my best to pay it forward.
I am one of those women now, who has to ride the carts. I am fortunate that at home, I can walk some and have a swivel stool in the kitchen so I can cook/bake/wash dishes.
My husband is a very kind soul and is always helping anyone he can. We do our RAKs when opportunity permits.
Do you know what else is important? To allow someone to help you in return. To allow someone else the joy in knowing what it is like to give to someone. It isn’t always easy to be the receiver, but we need to try.