Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Key to World Kindness

Monday was a busy day on our blog, so my small mention of this week's World Kindness Week got lost in all the other excitement.

Thanks to newcomer, Holly, World Kindness Week got a little more air time in Monday's comment section. Holly used the first letter of the word "kind" to identify four activities she and her son would complete in honor of the week. Activities included pulling weeds, icing cookies, donating nickels to the Salvation Army, and delivering treat bags to neighbors.

I loved Holly's creative approach to deciding how to celebrate World Kindness Week and thought I might take a crack at it myself. Instead of "k-i-n-d," I thought I might use the word "s-h-i-n-e."

Send a card to long lost friend from my address book; Help my friend Nan whose dryer broke and is buried in loads of wet laundry; Invite someone to have coffee with me on Friday morning; Name one nice thing I will do for each family member; Embrace my husband when he returns home from his week long trip on Friday.

Then I thought... instead of activities, I would let the letters inform who the objects of my kindness should be...

Susan, my NanoWriMo partner; Heather, my valued friend and source of great inspiration; Individual standing immediately behind me at Starbucks on Friday morning; Neighbors who moved in across the street; Ellen, my sister who I haven't seen in far too long.

But, it's World Kindness Week and I couldn't resist thinking what fun it would be to identify countries corresponding to each letter. Randomly select one of the five countries, find the address of someone living in that country, and then send him/her a SHINE shirt.

Spain; Hondurus; Ireland; New Zealand; England.

Or...

We could ditch all that and pay heed to Roger von Oech's suggestion (it is Wednesday, after all). Celebrate World Kindness Week by...

See! Hear! Taste! Feel! Smell!: Pay attention to a wide variety of different information. If you're visually oriented, focus on the "sound" or "smell" of a situation. If you are analytically oriented, focus on how something feels. If you're intuitive, concentrate on the logic. What other senses can you use to develop your idea?

So what do you think? What should I do? And while we're at it, what will you do?

Signing off until tomorrow...

6 comments:

Katie said...

Hellloooo???? Where is everyone???

Brian K. Root said...

Wow... it's quiet in here.

Brian K. Root said...

I'm going to drop a few notes of kindness and maybe a few treats to some random residents in the building Friday morning.

Cheryl Houston said...

I think the word "World" was throwing me for a loop. That's too big of a concept for me. I can't be kind to the whole world! Well, given the chance I guess I could but that's just too overwhelming of a thought so let's just bring it down a bit to my world. Whew! That feels better.

Smile at everyone.
Help before being asked to.
Include others.
Nourish my children.
Express appreciation.

Heather said...

Aw...I'm glad I inspire you.

Now what can I do for World Kindness...

Smile
Heap on the compliments
Initiate a Random Act of Kindness
Never take the easy road
Encourage others to do the same

Jessie Freeman said...

Strive to always help others
Hug someone
Impact others positively
Never stop smiling
Excite others