Moving? Use clean sheets, pillowcases, and towels to pack breakable items like dishes and framed artwork. The soft material will help cushion your breakables, reducing or eliminating the need for bubble wrap. As an added bonus, linens and kitchen items are usually among the first things you’ll need to unpack at your new place, so using one to help pack the other means you’ll find everything you need in one box. Clever, eh?
Get a rain barrel:
*Install the rain barrel at least six feet from your house. Locating it near an area you’ll be watering the most makes for convenient use later
*Ensure that your rain barrel has an overflow at least as large as your inflow-for example, if you have rigged it so that water is collected directly from your eaves’ trough downspout, your overflow valve should be as large as your downspout as well. This will allow your rain barrel to get rid of excess water as fast as it collects it, which might be necessary if you live in a city with crazy, unpredictable weather like my brother does.
*If you are using the rain barrel to water your garden, consider using a soaker hose. You can attach the hose to the rain barrel and then run it through your garden so that it covers the area you’d like. Now, every time you see a rain cloud, you’ll get really excited!
If you love to cook and love to help people, this might be the option for you: teach cooking classes or offer your services as a free guide to getting the healthiest groceries at the best prices via Cooking Matters, a division of Share Our Strength. What I love about this is that it is both personal and oh-so-practical. CookingMatters.org pairs you up with a local group. You can bake up a lot of love while showing others how to do the same.
If you have frequent flier miles you are not planning to use, give them to service members who have been injured in the line of duty and need to be flown to proper medical treatment. This can also enable family members to visit them. Check out fisherhouse.org to discover all you need to know about Fisher House Foundation’s Hero Miles Program. Love has an enormous power to heal, so sharing your unused miles stretches your love a mighty long way!
Have a friend or loved one that wants something unique for Christmas? Visit heifer.org to view and purchase some of the most helpful and generous gifts that can be given- but they don’t fit in a box and they won’t arrive on your friend’s doorstep.
Heifer International is an organization that works with communities to end hunger and poverty by providing sustainable agriculture and animals to families in need. You can “purchase” a goat for $120, a flock of geeses for $20, or a hope basket for $50, or browse the website for other options. These gifts are priceless (figuratively) and won’t go unappreciated or unused. Think about the positive impact you can make on a family-a world difference, actually!
 |
| https://twilightwish.org/fulfilled-twilight-wishes/ |
Grant a wish to a senior citizen. Volunteers for the Twilight Wish Foundation fulfill requests by donating items (like a home computer requested by a grandmother who wanted to email her grandkids) or by contributing their time. Learn all about it at twilightwish.org. Some wishes-like one from a retired postman who wanted to go over his old route one last time-require planning instead of money, and volunteers tend to choose items or actions that most speak to them.
Compliment someone today, and mean it. A genuine compliment can boost someone’s confidence and that is a great feeling. If you like your coworker’s blouse or new haircut (or both!), tell her. Open and honest communication works wonders for developing relationships and makes everybody’s day a little bit nicer.
Collect coupons for life’s little essentials, buy the merchandise, and then donate them to a homeless shelter or a home for abused women and children. I donate magazines and books to my shelter of choice, the fantastic Delancey Street (delanceystreetfoundation.org). They have been making a difference in people’s lives for decades and turned thousands of lives around.
In the beautiful paradise known as the Hawaiian Islands, there is a tradition of “Living Aloha.” In Hawaiian culture, aloha includes the concepts akahai, lokahi, olu` olu, ha`aha`a, and ahonui- in English, these words translate to kindness, bringing unity, politeness, humility, and enduring. If you live your life with simple acts of goodness every day and follow the tradition of native Hawaiian islanders, you will surely become good in the world.
 |
| https://keystokindness.org/community-impact/ |
If you are like me, you can end up with so many old keys you end up looking like a janitor! Find out how you can unlock some goodness ay keysforkindness.com. Donate your old keys to help fight Multiple Sclerosis.
If you see a uniformed soldier or veteran in a restaurant, arrange to pay for their meal. Anonymously is perfect unless you want to thank them personally and “enlist” a new friend into your life!
Solar ovens are inexpensive and easy to use, and you’ll cook for free every time you use one. Since it doesn’t require electricity, fossil fuels, or propane, a solar oven is perfect for your emergency supply kit. They also pasteurize water for drinking. Check out solarovens.org to see the great work this nonprofit is doing with solar ovens in developing countries. Go solar and really worship the sun.
Did you know this is National Samaritan Involvement Day? Now you do, and I have no doubt you can immediately be helpful to someone, somewhere. Doing a favor for someone without expecting something in return is the epitome of kindness and will earn you some karma points down the line (though you shouldn’t do this with the expectation of any!) Sometimes helping others is the best way to help yourself. Anytime one of my friends is singing the blues, I will say, “Let’s go serve some beans down at Glide Memorial! You’ll stop feeling sorry for yourself in the first 60 seconds”
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!
According to 50 Ways to Help the Planet (50waystohelp.com), “Recycled glass reduces related air pollution by 20% and related water pollution by 50%. If it isn’t recycled it can take a million years to decompose….20 recycled aluminum cans could be made with the energy it takes to manufacture one brand new one. Every ton of glass recycled saves the equivalent of nine gallons of fuel oil needed to make glass from virgin materials.
Bowl of candy? Check. Costume on? Check. Pumpkins carved? Check. Today is All Hallow’s Eve and what better day is there to dress up, go out, and overindulge on sugary sweets?
However, take a few precautions before venturing out:
But Halloween doesn’t have to be all about the sugar rush and crazy costumes. It can also be a very charitable day:
When someone tells you their good news, be excited for them and show your enthusiasm. Sometimes we may envy the good things that happen to others. If you focus on how happy this person is, this will allow their joy to become yours as well.
Be punctual. Arrive on time to events. It’s polite and professional, and you don’t want to keep others waiting for you.
I love the old-fashioned ideas of virtues, such as kindness and generosity, a lot. I am determined to develop my patience muscle so it gets stronger all the time. Here is a big one for me: to learn to have patience with difficult people. (And realize I may be one myself and not know it!) This is not only a good deed for the person you are exhibiting patience towards, but it is also a good deed for yourself. Imagine that, a good deed for yourself!
For example, when someone pushes your buttons by doing something or saying something rude, you can choose to act with patience and understanding instead of anger. This will benefit you by keeping your blood pressure and stress levels low-which we know are two health issues that many people are suffering from today. My wise woman friend BJ Gallagher ays, “Difficult people are the ones we learn the most from.”
If you see a penny on the ground, flip it and make it face head’s up. Some people find joy in picking up a lucky penny and you can help bring that joy to them.
