Acts of Random Kindness to You

Well, it might be an early one, but it is upon us once again. I actually love Easter as it is a sign of a new season, new animal life, and generally better weather, but all that aside, there is more I like about Easter. At Easter, the focus of things changes somewhat for people. Their spirits are a little lighter and things suddenly don’t seem so dark and gloomy.

If you are of a particular faith, Easter can mean much more than even those things I mentioned above.  There are even some faiths that don’t celebrate Easter at all. Many people that I keep in touch with on some of my other sites have been kind enough to share with me about their faiths and views. I think it is important that we understand where other people are coming from and I think it makes a more tolerant world in general.

So, whatever Easter has in store for you, take a minute and think about a situation where you could be or even could have been more tolerant of someone that was different than you. Do your part to make this sometimes chaotic world a better place to be. Happy Easter to each of my friends and for those that don’t celebrate Easter, Happy Spring !!

I don’t think I have mentioned in prior posts that I have the good fortune of working with children. However, even better than that is the fact that I don’t work with just any children, I work with high school age kids that have a few learning difficulties. This is an awesome job because they know what it means to struggle and often times, some of the toughest ones in the classroom are the kindest to the underdogs in the building. Let me share a couple of examples.

The other day we had a fire drill and as we headed down the three flights of stairs, I somehow got separated from a young lady that struggles with her vision. As the hundreds of students pushed down the stairwell, I was worried she was going to stumble. However, no sooner than I worried,  a young man also from my classroom did something amazing. This young man, turned around and handed the girl the back of his shirt. Slowly, her guided her down the rest of the stairs and out to the parking lot without incident. There he stood in the parking lot with this little bitty thing still holding tight to his shirt. He never asked her to let go or even indicated that he had done something so kind. He just stood there. I was so touched that I teared up.

Another incident several years ago still stays with me as well. I had this boy that was repeating his senior year and to put it mildly, he was the toughest case I had ever met. He had no parents, for all intents and purposes was homeless, but I knew he had something in him that nobody had gotten to yet. He became my mission that year. Throughout the year, somehow this boy began to care. Oh, he could still be a royal pain, but he started doing things like helping substitute teachers out when I was away or reading things to another student if I got busy across the room and they were struggling. He took kids under his wing that were overweight or that didn’t have friends and looked out for them in the cafeteria. In short, his heart began to shine. He graduated that year and people were amazed that he had made it.  I was amazed that nobody had noticed before what this young man was capable of being.

In short, don’t sell kids short in the game of kindness. They will engage in whatever is modeled for them. You don’t have to nag or preach to them, simply show them kindness and then stand back to watch the world become a better place for all of us.