BITS OF KINDNESS
What if, this holiday season, under your festively decorated Christmas tree or next to the flickering candles of the Menorah, you find a present labeled ”Bits of Kindness”? The gift card just says: “From someone who loves and appreciates you.”
You unwrap the mysterious gift. It’s filled with small squares of colorful paper and a diary labeled “Bit of Kindness” Log.
Instructions: Each day you are to scan the world, your neighborhood, your home, for someone who could use a “bit of kindness.” Offer some kindness, in any form, to that person (or pet!). This gets jotted down in your private log, marked with a different colorful “bit.” After each entry you are asked to write: “How did performing that bit of kindness make you feel?”
If you open your eyes to the world around you… and off your phone… you would see the thousands of bits of kindness you could disperse. But it means you have: To look. To feel. To care.
Perhaps you notice an older person with a walker, starting to cross the street at the green light. It might be worth a bit of kindness to walk alongside them, ensuring that they safely cross before the light turns red.
Or you have a dear friend who avoids burdening others with their problems. Maybe you could show a bit of kindness, reach out to her and, with open heart, ask to hear how she’s feeling? What she needs?
Do you have an acquaintance who is alone for the holidays? Could you show a bit of kindness and invite them along to your celebrations?
If you have extra hats, scarves, gloves, perhaps you can carry them with you and, as a bit of kindness, give them to someone on the street who might need them.
Anyone you know who’s grieving, who’s been ill and isolated, who might not have the energy, or hope, to connect with others, show a bit of kindness and reach out to them.
Did you know an unexpected smile can warm someone’s day? An extra touch on the shoulder could give a struggling person the connection they need to keep going. Just the act of listening, patiently, is a bit of kindness to someone who needs the space to talk.
There’s a wisdom hidden in the box of Bits of Kindness. If you haven’t left half the box for you, you’re cheating…. yourself. Have you given all your kindness away? Take a quiet look at that. Why do you notice everyone else’s needs and not your own?
My “bits of kindness” to myself might be: an afternoon nap, going to bed early to lose myself in an engrossing novel, pancakes, saying “Thank you, but no.” to an invitation I should accept but would rather not, buying myself a beautiful necklace that I fell in love with at a crafts fair, permission to change my mind without guilt.
How would you use your “bits of kindness”? Continue to write how you feel each time you give yourself a caring gift. Who do you think sent you your “bits of kindness” to begin with? Someone who loves and appreciates you…you.
Let’s make a chain of all these colorful bits of kindness. Perhaps we can wrap it around the world. My wish for the coming year.
Dedicated to Marta, who taught me that one small act can have a ripple effect through the Universe.