Welcome to this months Ageless Style link-up. This month our theme is Kindness which was picked by the lovely Joanne from Slices of Life. This theme is absolutely perfect timing as in schools we always acknowledge, celebrate and encourage kindness, empathy and understanding in our fight against bullying in the month of February. In our school division we had out "pink shirt day" yesterday, Feb 15th. In honor of this day, I decided to get my craft on and I made this shirt that I truly represents how I see small acts of kindness and their effects on community. I bought the sweatshirt at Walmart for $17 and its not only a beautiful pink, but it's the softest sweatshirt I own. I got out my Circuit and finally opened my Easy Press that I got for my birthday in July!!!!! As a teacher I use the month of February to really think about what love stands for. What does kindness and love, look, sound and feel like? It's our actions big and small that demonstrate who we are as humans, not just during a special day, but in our daily lives. I would argue that the tiniest, smallest acts of kindness can have the greatest impact.
Here is a perfect example. Recently my teenage daughter began a job at a local supermarket. It's mostly good and mostly people are kind, with an odd grumpy one here and there. The main thing you can get as words of encouragement is a smile and a simple "have a nice day" or "thank you". Well here is a story from last week that just went a little further and made her, and her collogues, feel a little extra special. A lady purchased a handful of chocolate bars. Upon paying for her groceries, she went and handed each till person a chocolate bar and thanked them for being part of the "essential workers". Isn't that so kind? It's not a HUGE donation. It didn't come with camera crews and it wasn't filmed and posted on IG. It was simply about connecting and thanking without expecting anything in return.
So here is a list of little and big ways to show kindness:
- Smile at a stranger and say hello
- Hold the door for someone at the gym, mall, hallway, etc.
- Leave a little note with a treat for a collegue
- Leave a review for a buisness
- Buy flowers and stop by a friends house to surprise them just because
- Send a card to someone special for no reason at all
- Shovel or snowblow a neighbours dirveway (especially if you live in Saskatchewan)
- Make and deliever packages for the homeless in your area (we've done this and it's wonderful way to take away some of the fear and stigma related to interacting with homeless people, yes even for kids)
- Donate blood (this is something I am scared to do but really want to)
- Surprise a total stranger by buying them coffee
- Buy a bouquet of flowers and give them to a stranger
- Volunteer or offer to car pool for friends to help out
