Random Acts of Kindness Week

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This past Monday began Random Acts of Kindness week.  I learned from their website that they began officially in 1995:

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is a resource for people committed to spreading kindness. We provide a wide variety of materials on our website, including activity ideas, lesson plans, project plans, teacher’s guide, project planning guide, publicity guide, and workplace resources on our website at www.actsofkindness.org – all free of charge.

It is a great excuse to look for little ways to lend a helping hand.  The website offers materials, ideas and projects already in place -no end of ideas. 

Here’s a little idea from the book 52 Projects Random Acts of Everyday Creativity from Jeffrey Yamaguchi.  He suggests writing a few inspirational notes – no contact information, just anonymous notes of encouragement and then placing them randomly in a few books in your local library.  Imagine if somone were to check out the book “Freedom from Depression” and find a little note from you offering a quote or scripture that let’s them know they are not alone.

Neat idea.

My son is a senior in high school and as he prepares for college he’s been reminiscing about his educational years.  One teacher – the Language Arts teacher from 8th grade – is mentioned on a number of occasions.  For an 18 year old, four years ago was back in the dark ages!  It says a lot about a teacher that they’d be remembered fondly for what they taught so many years later.  So over the weekend I dropped him a quick email.  Didn’t take any time at all.  I just gave him an update on my son’s college plans and told him how fondly he was remembered and I ended the note with “thank you so much for all you taught my son.”

Here’s a bit of what I heard back:

Thanks so much for your kind words.  An e-mail like this one should be waiting for every person in the world on Monday morning.  Nothing could possibly make you feel better.  I really appreciate you taking the time to contact me…It’s letters like these that keep me going on the rainy days. 

It never occured to me that my little note would have such an impact.  His email made me smile.  So lift your head up from the task at hand and send a quick email of thanks to a customer, a friend or a teacher.  It is just a kind thing to do!