Organize a Family Reunion

Get everyone together and spend a day at a park or one of your houses. Have a barbecue, play games, catch up on each other’s lives. It’s hard to stay in touch on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis, so find a day where you can all reconnect. Set up a round-robin reunion so that everyone takes a turn and makes sure the closeness continues, year after year.

It Takes a Village and You

In early 2010, in the small village of Nshupu, Tanzania, nine malnourished orphans were sleeping on a cement floor without even a blanket or sufficient food. Four years later, these children have a lovely new permanent home, are attending school, and have welcomed six more orphans to their family. Their home also serves as a village community center that hosts, among other things, a weekly women’s empowerment group that has created a savings and loan program for impoverished single mothers and widows. There is also a kindergarten program that serves 70 village children annually, including feeding them regular meals. All these endeavors are shepherded by PreciousProject.org, which explains on their website, “Though lack of education is a leading cause of poverty, Tanzanian schools are not free. Attendance even at the primary school level requires the ability to pay for school uniforms, meals, materials, equipment, fees, and other expenses. As a result, there are children who are unable to even receive a primary education. Our goal is to help break the cycle of poverty by providing educational opportunities for orphans and other high-risk children.”

Click to Give

    There are many websites that are click-to-give. Just by clicking, you can help send food or money to countries and causes that need them. One of them is greatergood.com. It just takes a few keystrokes to make someone's life better.

Share Your Toys

    Leave small, handmade toys for people to find. The Toy Society spreads love by doing this good deed. Visit thetoysociety.blogspot.com for more information and inspiration. You can post your toy drop on the website and view the drops that others have made. Feel free to share a picture and revel in the thought of bringing a child happiness, especially with the pandemic- it might also be a good idea to leave a note on the toy that lets people know they can take it. For example: “Take me home- I’m Yours!” If you'd like, write that the toy has gone through its two weeks of quarantine and leave a small thing of hand sanitizer with it.

Mother Ocean Day

    Look into volunteering to clean up your local beach. With pollution in our water and in the sand, help make these local hot spots safer for future visitors to the beach and the environment! If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, check out All One Ocean to see when you can help: alloneocean.org/community-meeting-beach-clean-up. 

True Love Does Not Require a Diamond

    Precious gems and metals leave a horrific trail of pollution and human rights abuses. Not much more needs to be said about this one without getting into some seriously depressing territory, but we cannot discuss jewelry without acknowledging that many people pay a steep price in order to mine, produce, and export all those shiny little rocks we coyly call "a girl's best friend." There are so many ways to show your love and no suffering should be involved. Ever

Universal Bringer of Kindness

The universe always has space for more kindness.

Buy your copy of "Random Acts of Kindness" by Brenda Knight and Becca Anderson now on mango.bz: https://mango.bz/books/random-acts-of-kindness-1484-b

The Little Things Count

    Do little things for others, like holding the door open and letting someone go before you, sharing some of your hand sanitizer, or allowing the person with only one item go ahead of you at the grocery store. I think due to our over-busyness nowadays, so many people rush through life and don't consider the feelings of others. A simple gesture can be a good reminder for us all, myself included. Take your time, look around you, and ask yourself, how can I help someone today? In the end, you are helping yourself just as much.

Save the Rainforest

     Tropical rainforests take in vast amounts of carbon dioxide (a poisonous gas which mammals exhale) and through the process of photosynthesis, convert it into clean, breathable air. In fact, the tropical rainforests are the single greatest terrestrial source of air that we breathe.

    What's truly amazing, however, is that while the tropical rainforests cover just over two percent of the Earth's land surface, they are home to two-thirds of all the living species on the planet. Additionally, nearly half the medicinal compounds we use every day come from plants endemic to the tropical rainforest. If a cure for cancer or the common cold is to be found, it'll almost certainly come from the tropical rainforests.

    Tragically, the tropical rainforests are being destroyed at an alarming rate. According to Rainforest Action Network, more than an acre-and-a-half is lost every second of every day. That's an area more than twice the size of Florida that goes up in smoke every year!

    According to savetherainforest.org, "If present rates of destruction continue, half our remaining rainforests will be gone by the year 2025, and by 2060 there will be no remaining rainforests remaining."

It Is Getting Better

    Join the 594,740 people who have taken the It Gets Better Pledge.

    Have you take the pledge? Everyone deserves to be respected for who they are. I pledge to spread this message to my friends, family, and neighbors. I'll speak up against hate and intolerance whenever I see it, at school and at work. I'll provide hope for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other bullied teens by letting them know that it gets better. Sign on up at itgetsbetter.org to support LGBTQ+ children and help teens live a bully-free life!

Earn an Advanced Degree in Giving

    I count myself very lucky indeed to know the world's only Jollytologist, Allen Klein. The story of how he came to have this distinction astounds me. Ever hear of a "Jollytologist"? Well, meet Allen. Through his books and presentations, Klein shows people worldwide how to deal with everything from traffic jams to corporate culture. Klein got this unusual line of work after his wife died of a rare liver disease at the age of 34 when he saw how humor helped her, and those around her, to cope. He now teaches others how to find humor in trying times. His audience includes people in 48 American states as well as Israel and Australia, and clients from IBM to the IRS. Comedian Jerry Lewis had said that Allen Klein is "a noble and vital force watching over the human condition." I agree with Jerry Lewis and would add that Allen Klein makes the world a better place, every day!