For Services Rendered

Send a letter to someone in local law enforcement, the Coast Guard, or serving overseas that gives thanks for their hard work and dedication to our country. It’s simple and will be greatly appreciated. Go to LetsSayThanks.com for inspiration.

Make Merry

Santa Claus came early to a Pennsylvania retailer recently. In December 2014, an anonymous man walked into a store and told the manager he wanted to donate $50,000 to help pay off customer layaway accounts. “We made him say it twice,” said store manager Steve Meyers. “When we started telling customers, they thought it might be a joke.” The donor, who asked to be known as Santa B.,arrived just in time, as unfulfilled layaway orders were set to be cancelled that day. “He just wanted to bring Christmas cheer to everyone,” Meyers said. “He was in and out, kind of like Santa Claus.”

Your Friends from the Farm

https://www.farmsanctuary.org/

Gene and Lorri Bauston found a living sheep abandoned on a stockyard “dead pile” in 1986.

Once they recovered from the shock, they rescued the sheep, named her Hilda, and went to

work creating the Farm Sanctuary. Within ten years, Farm Sanctuary became the nation’s

largest farm animal rescue and protection organization. They now have a New York shelter and

one in California, 100 miles north of Sacramento. Their website is farmsanctuary.org. Not only

does their organization rescue thousands of farm animals each year, but they are also involved

in groundbreaking campaigns to help animals. Another way you can support this effort is to visit

a sanctuary with your kids, as they often include quaint petting zoos with fuzzy critters!

Love Notes

Leave encouraging, inspiring, or funny notes or quotes in a library book or other random places (without littering of defiling public property). A simple note stapled to a bulletin board, taped to a column, or written in chalk on the sidewalk may influence in wonderful ways-you’ll be like a secret agent who brings happiness to others. This website has fun examples that might give you some ideas: artofgettingstarted.com

Give Life

Donate blood. One donation can hjelp up to four people. If that’s not inspiring enough, every three seconds, someone needs a blood transfusion due to various injuries, illness, or conditions. Donating is completely free and completely safe at bloodcenters.org. Go to the American Red Cross website (redcrossblood.org/make-donation) to find a location near you. And did you know you get cookies and juice after your donation?

Practice Random Acts Of Kindness

Random Acts of Kindness Day is always the week of Valentine’s Day. I love to hear how this meaningful movement has touched others’ lives. Artist and author Peg Conley shares her thoughts:

You’ve seen those bumper stickers, the ones encouraging you to commit “random acts of kindness?” What they can’t tell you in that little space is how performing those acts can be a way of transforming yourself. When you begin to focus on extending kindness towards others, you’ll feel more kindness coming towards you. Not only will you make someone else’s day better, you’ll be surprised how well yours improves. It’s rather like the “Secret Santa” gift exchange that many offices and families adopt during the weeks leading up to Christmas. There is delight when you do something for another while keeping your identity a secret. When you watch a person receiving a surprise gift, you see their face change, the eyes open wide with delight, a smile bursting into a grin, and laughter erupting. They appear to feel sheer joy at the unexpected. The old adage is true: “It is in giving that we receive.”  The other part of the quote, which is by a San Franciscan writer named Anne Herbert, is often left out: “and (practice) senseless acts of beauty.” I received a text the other day from a friend who had taken a picture with her phone of a sidewalk outside a coffee shop where she works in San Francisco. Someone had written “ It’s a beautiful day” with colored chalk on the sidewalk and adorned it with butterflies and hearts. That, to me, is a senseless act of beauty. Think how many people walked on that sidewalk that day and smiled at the childish scrawl reminding them of the beautiful day.

The Hebrew word mitzvah means a good deed or an act of kindness. Judaism teaches that the world is built on kindness. I recall what my Bubbe, a dear friend in Salt Lake City who was my son’s first caregiver, used to tell me about the importance of doing mitzvahs. She believes in the power of doing good for another person but not telling them about it. She is a perfect example of someone who practices random acts of kindness, and also one who sees and acknowledges the beauty in everyone she meets. I always feel better just by being in her presence. Entire campaigns focused on practicing random acts of kindness have sprouted up. This, along with “having an attitude of gratitude,” enriches my days in many ways. There are myriad ways you can practice random acts of kindness. Don’t forget to include yourself when you are doing them!