26 Acts of Kindness

We were all floored by the events of December 14th.  I was at the mall with my little ones.  They were playing in the kids' area, and as I watched them, I was receiving breaking news notifications from CNN.com.  One after the other.  My heart fell to the floor.  Hearing of these massacres is never easy, but this time, as we all know, it was children.  Children.  As my toddlers romped and rolled with other kids, their laughter in my ears, the realization that some other mother would never again hold their baby sank deep into my person.  As cliche as this sounds, I can only imagine that pain.  My friends on various social media were spewing why? what's wrong with people?  Families threatened to (and I'm sure acted upon) pulling their children from public schools with intent to educate them from home.  And I thought to myself: this could happen anywhere.  And, it has.  Schools, malls, movie theaters, fitness centers.  I was sitting there, surveying the people around me, knowing that any one of them could very well be harboring the evilest of intentions.  It became a waiting game for advocates of gun control between giving the victims a chance to mourn and politicizing the massacre toward their cause.  Gun-owners deflected, citing mental health issues.  Morgan Freeman blames society as a whole for focusing on the killer and not the victims.  He even offered some suggestions to psychos who wanted even more media attention (preschools or maternity wards).  I processed all this in about fifteen minutes, and my brain hasn't stopped considering it since.  What can we do?  What can I do?

Jump to today:
I attended a meeting with the North Idaho Unitarian Universalists, and the speaker was truly inspiring.  She spoke of noticing the good, the pure and simple good in life.  Basically, stopping to smell the roses, but with a refreshed perspective.  She spoke of letting go of negative emotions as well as habits or beliefs that may no longer serve us positively.  She spoke of balance and gratitude, of inclusiveness rather than only tolerance.  It was really a wonderful service.   

I have been vaguely familiar with the 26 Acts of Kindness movement.  In honor of each of the lives lost on December 14th, if each person commits 26 random acts of kindness, we may affect change.  We may be able to notice the positive, to take in the good in life, rather than the evil.  I am in love with this idea.  The weekend before Christmas, I was in line at my favorite coffee stand, on my way to work.  I pulled up, ordered and prepared to pay.  She handed me my drink but declined my money; the driver ahead of me had already covered it.  It was amazing to be touched in this way; I felt included in something greater (a feeling which I rarely feel).  We are part of a whole.  We must care for one another and show one another that we care, even in the simplest, anonymous, random way.  In that moment, I dutifully left payment for the next driver, and I can only hope that that person paid it forward.  Later that day, I gave hand-warmers to the Salvation Army bell ringer and left a gift card at the same coffee stand to be used for the next several cars to come through.  I also gave the barista (luckily my favorite one) a ten-dollar tip.  I gave my mailman (a known douche-bag) fresh-baked banana bread and a couple more hand-warmers.

This doesn't stop because Christmas is over.  I'm going to get to twenty-six.  And I'm not going to stop there.

#1 Paid it forward in the drive-thru chain
#2 Hand-warmers to Salvation Army bell ringer
#3 Gift card to random coffee lovers
#4 $10 holiday tip to my favorite barista
#5 Hand-warmers and banana bread to (douchey) mailman
#6 (current project) making a little girl's birthday party wish come true