Kindness Reminders

I read this article called Raising the Kindness Karma sent to me by Donna Mosher from The Woodlands, Texas (just a hop, skip, and jump from me). This man, Nipun Mehta, left a career as a software engineer to do full time charity work. He organized CharityFocus.org, and from there created Karma Kitchen where your check reads "Your meal was a gift from someone who came before you. We hope you will pay it forward however you wish." He then made a pilgrimage to India instructing his mother, "Whenever you are worried that I don't have enough food, make some food and give it away." This man's intention is to help shape a future rooted in the celebration of abundance rather than fear of scarcity.

Awkwardly, I mustered up just enough courage to hand a String-Ring box to a helpful store employee at a local Kohl's yesterday. She looked a little puzzled and why wouldn't she be? Even Emily Post would be stumped on the appropriate etiquette when a complete stranger hands you a box and says, "This is for you". I don't even know the employee's name. But she took the time to figure out a tricky transaction for me and seemed happy to do so. I hope I'll have something to post next week about her experience with the Kindness Ring experiment.

I noticed this chalk drawing on a neighbors driveway yesterday. I don't know how she was able to do it in the intermittent rain, but I snapped a picture before it was washed away. I love finding little jewels like this that make me smile. Hooray for inspiring neighbors who are The Light when it rains!

If you haven't heard, Oprah has declared today, April 30, No Phone Zone day. Wow, that lady has power!I'm glad she uses it to do good. Much to my son's dismay, I rarely text. But I have been guilty of taking a call while driving. Not any longer.

A few years ago I proclaimed myself a simplicity convert dedicated to unitasking. Attempting to put my entire focus on the task, interaction, or road ahead of me. Our culture is not geared this way, but if you don't believe that talking on the phone distracts a driver, you should take a minute to watch America' New Deadly Obsession.

I had this idea about a year ago, but my ever-present shyness got in the way of getting it started. So today, I am going to post this to MAKE myself follow through. This is an attempt to follow the chain of kindness simply to see it grow.

This weekend I'll be running a few errands as usual. The first person I notice exhibiting kindness I will approach and say....??? (I haven't exactly figured that part out yet). Anyway, I will hand them a String-Ring with a note explaining the experiment that reads:

You've been chosen to receive this String-Ring, the Kindness Reminder Ring, to wear for the next week because you've been caught being kind. Please then polish the ring with the enclosed polishing cloth, change the string by following enclosed direction, and Pass it On! When you witness a stranger doing something kind, please pass the ring on to them to wear for a week. Hopefully, they too, will Pass Kindness On.

This video is actually a PSA for cycling safety. It is about awareness and I found it on the Never Not Here website. Richard Miller, the host of the web show, uses it to call attention to the fact that everything we see or believe is manipulated by our own expectations. I'm a big fan of this show about non-duality and found this message useful to our kindness mission.

This is not new. We all know that our own life experience "colors" what we see and therefore, our assumptions are subjective and not necessarily "absolute truth". I don't think this can be stressed enough.

I've noticed a trend in a What You Didn't Know About Me list on blogs recently. I enjoy reading them and gaining a little insight into the blogger's life.

So as Jon Lovitz from SNL would say ... Get To Know Me! Here are 10 random things you didn't know about me.

1. I can't pronounce the word Worcestershire as in Worcestershire Sauce.
2. I drive slowly and badly.
3. I wanted to major in the humanities before switching to graphic art.
4. I can't sing or dance. Well I can but it isn't pretty.
5. Crave sweets like a little kid. I'm talking gummy-colas, bubble gum tape, licorice, pixie sticks, the list goes on forever. I have as much self-restraint with these treats as an unsupervised six year old in a candy store.
6. I'm a twin.
7. I've been practicing yoga for 20 years. (Hence, the photo)
8. I love immature humor and laugh hardest when laughing at myself. Other loves are: being a mom, my family, my dog/jogging partner, and margaritas.

Relative to other households in the U.S., I thought we were living a comparatively eco-friendly lifestyle. We recycle, use energy-efficient light bulbs, drive less than 50 miles a week, and are always looking for ways to cut back on waste. But, alas, after I took the Earth Day Footprint quiz I realized we were not doing enough diminish our carbon footprint.

I'll never forget one evening in the spring of 2007. Sitting like an island with my tools and sheets of metal circling me, I was experimenting with different design ideas for my Kindness Ring project.

For several years, I had been contemplating ways to incorporate the importance of kindness into our schools. Not having a teaching background and discovering that most of the school programs were designed on a state level, not local which I had previously assumed, I came to the conclusion that I was out of my comfort zone as far as establishing a kindness program. Still deeply concerned about the lack of respect and tolerance I observed through direct experience or from the media, especially in our schools with violent behavior on the rise, I decided to use the skills I had as a designer and was in the process of creating String-Ring, The Kindness Reminder Ring.

I'm not the most voracious reader, but once in a Blue Moon, I'll find something that interests me. Since the launch of the Kindness Community blog, I've become committed to, in the words of Albert Einstein, "widening our circle of compassion to embrace all". And having a penchant for sarcasm, I couldn't help but be interested in this book titled, "How to Be A Better Person" with a cover photo of an angel wearing sneakers standing next to a dog "marking" those very sneakers.

This book about making time to help your fellow man is highly entertaining due to author Seb Hunter's brilliantly irreverent (but not unkind) humor. After all, it is about a guitar playing heavy metal lover with a wildly quick wit on a whim mission to spend 2 years of his life volunteering. Not your stereotypical volunteer, to say the least. Which is exactly what makes this read so enjoyable.