Human Kindness Week and Day
November 12-18, 2007 is World Kindness Week and November 13, 2007 is World Kindness Day. Start planning your special acts of kindness for that time period. Maybe you have a 'cake' at the office to promote kindness at the workplace. Maybe you send flowers to a special friend, or buy someone a coffee or make it a plan to hold open doors for people all week long.
While waiting for my wife at work I recently watched one employ exit the building and put up her umbrella. She was obviously going to the donut shop across the street. A fellow employee without an umbrella was walking into the building, but it was raining and she was getting wet. Our umbrella carrier jogged out to her friend and walked her back into the building under cover of the now shared umbrella. How many times have all of us had such an opportunity and because of our narrow focus, we missed to help out a fellow human being.
While you're holding open that door, take the plunge and say hello. The world is full of stories where a simple greeting has changed lives. Weave your thread into the tapestry of life and create a story of triumph, not one of cynicism and despair!
Simple, genuine acts of human kindness only take seconds. Lives can be changed in minutes ... a kind word ... a smile ... a touch of the arm (a safe, meaningful touch that is). Bishop Desmond Tutu became a Priest because one day, when he was a boy in Africa, he and his mother were walking down the road and a man bowed to him. It was custom for blacks to step to the side of the road and bow at whites. He noticed a white man approaching them but before he could tell his mother to step aside, the white man stepped aside for them.
Shocked, Tutu looked at his mother and asked her why that man had done that simple act. She told him that he was a priest and that was the kind of things that priests do. Desmond Tutu promised himself that he would become a priest that day. A bow, a friendly hello. Stopping for the yellow light instead of racing through it and then the red. All of these things make the world a better place.
If someone asks you for help, give it, if it is in your power to help. If you know someone is struggling, plan to do something positive in advance of being asked.
If you're a politician do the right thing ... the hard thing ... not the thing that keeps you in power. We need you to do the right things, to be symbols of hope in a world that can be full of despair.
So come on out and celebrate Kindness Week
While waiting for my wife at work I recently watched one employ exit the building and put up her umbrella. She was obviously going to the donut shop across the street. A fellow employee without an umbrella was walking into the building, but it was raining and she was getting wet. Our umbrella carrier jogged out to her friend and walked her back into the building under cover of the now shared umbrella. How many times have all of us had such an opportunity and because of our narrow focus, we missed to help out a fellow human being.
While you're holding open that door, take the plunge and say hello. The world is full of stories where a simple greeting has changed lives. Weave your thread into the tapestry of life and create a story of triumph, not one of cynicism and despair!
Simple, genuine acts of human kindness only take seconds. Lives can be changed in minutes ... a kind word ... a smile ... a touch of the arm (a safe, meaningful touch that is). Bishop Desmond Tutu became a Priest because one day, when he was a boy in Africa, he and his mother were walking down the road and a man bowed to him. It was custom for blacks to step to the side of the road and bow at whites. He noticed a white man approaching them but before he could tell his mother to step aside, the white man stepped aside for them.
Shocked, Tutu looked at his mother and asked her why that man had done that simple act. She told him that he was a priest and that was the kind of things that priests do. Desmond Tutu promised himself that he would become a priest that day. A bow, a friendly hello. Stopping for the yellow light instead of racing through it and then the red. All of these things make the world a better place.
If someone asks you for help, give it, if it is in your power to help. If you know someone is struggling, plan to do something positive in advance of being asked.
If you're a politician do the right thing ... the hard thing ... not the thing that keeps you in power. We need you to do the right things, to be symbols of hope in a world that can be full of despair.
So come on out and celebrate Kindness Week
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