After watching Anne Curry last night, I learned about her pay-it-forward movement to honor the victims from the Sand Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. I cried as I listened as a simple act of kindness from one professional football player blossomed into a social media movement to do one good deed for each of the children and adults slain in this tragedy.
I was so moved to tears that I looked up the hashtag for #26acts. I was overwhelmed with our nation’s willingness to join in this movement. I too vowed to join the #26acts movement that I promised myself I would start in the morning.
As I slept on it though, I struggled with one thing…. isn’t this supposed to be about doing a good deed for someone … anyone, anyone other than ourselves? Someone that is a complete stranger for the pure joy of being selfless?
Doing a good deed should not be about shouting from the rooftop our actions. It should be about knowing that within ourselves, we did something kind and nice for someone else, that we are not expecting to gain any outward reward for this act. Rather our reward is to know that we are living life as it has been intended. After all, isn’t that what the human spirit is all about? So I will not be tweeting my twenty-six acts of kindness, nor will I be counting the acts as though I only have to perform just those twenty-six.
So, without shouting from the rooftop, I will say, today I kept my promise to myself and I performed my first act of kindness for a total stranger. I was not methodical in my actions, I had no plan, I just had a thought and went with it. What I will say is that I was so overcome with emotion that tears welled up in my eyes and a frog was stuck in my throat that when the women realized what I had done, I was unable to speak a single word as she was thanking me.
I know I will continue to perform random acts of kindness.
Will you join in the 26 Acts of Kindness Movement and Pay it Forward ?….
