Yesterday I was on a high. And not my usual marker smelling high. I was on a high because we started a Kindness Revolution. And within hours, our #BeKind hashtag was the No. 1 trending topic on twitter. It was amazing watching the #BeKind twitter stream and reading the random acts of kindness being tweeted out.
I just wanted to take a quick sec to clear up one thing. During the height of #BeKind more than a few people tweeted giving me credit for the Kindness Revolution and oh, what a great idea! Let me be abundantly clear...
I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH STARTING THIS.
It was all Candace (or @seemummyjuggle as her twitter friends know her). Candace is the inspiration behind all of this, I’m just her wingman. And I’ll take credit where credit is due – I’m a damn fine wingman. Give me second in command and I’ll rock it. But t’was Candace who so passionately explained to me why this was important to her. And it was her passion that had me jumping on board immediately.
And here’s how nice she is….when I emailed her with the brilliant subject line FAAAACK and wrote to say I needed to make sure people knew she was the inspiration behind the movement, she wrote me back and said “it doesn’t matter who or how the message the gets out, so long as it gets out”
I know. Amazing, right?
Also, the twitter #BeKind hashtag wouldn’t have been so successful if it weren't for a wonderful woman named Maureen (@moeturner on twitter). I was working away, popping on and off twitter, chatting, adding the hashtag….and everytime I popped on, there was Moe way ahead of me on the #BeKind bandwagon. Then at about 12:50 I popped on and saw her tweet: At 1:00 ET, pay someone a compliment for the #Bekind movement
And that’s when we started trending. It was Moe’s idea and her tweet that really gave the #BeKind hashtag the momentum it needed.
So now I’m going to tell you about someone else.
Her name is Karen and she’s our YMC Creative Director, although I prefer to call her Web Goddess. Karen creates all of the amazing graphics you see on our site and is in charge of making our articles pretty and publishing them. She also keeps me sane, which isn’t actually in her job description but probably should be.
Karen has written many heartfelt and poignant articles for us about being a foster parent – she is kindness personified. Warning: Before you read any of her articles, grab a tissue, you’ll need it.
Giving Back My Baby
The Cost Of Cougar Boots
Silent Children Of Our Heart
Remembering Niki
But you should also know she's not all about the tear-jerker story, she's super funny and makes me laugh at least once a day. And some day I'll share the story with you about the muffins she sent to her kids' school that had me laughing so hard I couldn't breathe and *may* have caused me to pee my pants a bit.
This morning Karen sent out an email to all our bloggers with an amazing idea on how to get your own family involved in the Kindness Movement. I’ll just copy and paste it in her words 'cause I'm lazy that way and also she can write me under the table with one arm tied behind her back...
My family is taking our "12 Days of Christmas" tradition this year and bumping it up to November as well due to being inspired by all this Kindness and have created our "12 Days of Kindness Pre-Christmas". In case any of you are interested in adopting the tradition, this is what it is:
Starting on December 1st (or earlier), every member of my family needs to perform at least 12 anonymous random acts of kindness that month before Christmas. Every time a kindness is done, we write it on a slip of paper and put it in a jar (labelled the Kindness Jar decorated by the kids). With four people in the family, that ends up being 48 slips of paper (or more) by Christmas - and on Christmas Eve, we take turns pulling the papers from the jar and reading about all the good things we've done - so we can all go to bed with that warm fuzzy feeling inside.
And it doesn't have to be money-related (tho some are - like buying coffee for the guy behind you in the Timmie's drive thru) - but with my kids, it can be a compliment to the school bully; opening a door for someone, etc. The most memorable one for me was when my five year old son walked up to an elderly lady sitting on a bench at the swimming pool and touched her hand and said very solemnly "you are a really beautiful lady" and made her all teary (and me too).
So thank you Sharon for inspiring me and my family to start early this year! The Kindness Jar will be overflowing by Christmas.
No, thank YOU Karen, for providing such an inspiring idea. We'll be decorating our jar at home tonight.
p.s. My random act of kindness today is sending you to read this wine review. I guarantee you'll laugh.
p.p.s. I didn't edit this - just wrote and published so I could get it out there in the universe. If there are spelling/grammar errors, #BeKind and cut me a bit of slack.
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Kind: Of a friendly, generous, or warm-hearted nature, showing sympathy or understanding; charitable, humane; considerate, forbearing; tolerant, generous
Like many you who read my blog, Candace is a mother. She runs a successful business, Best Tools For Schools, and writes our See Mummy Juggle blog. She’s constantly on the go, is always there for her friends, and although she’ll at times deny it, a great parent. She’s cute too, and super tiny. I’d like to hate her but unfortunately she’s also nice and quite giving. I consider myself lucky to call her a friend. Although she did stay at my house once and has politely refused any invite ever since.
*Things that make you go hmmmm….*
Candace also believes in giving back and not only talks the talk, she walks the walk. She volunteers for the United Way, has sorted food at her local food bank, raised money for Kids Help Phone and is currently organizing a diaper drive (click the link to get involved). Last year she was introduced to Rabbi Bulka who started Kindness Week in Ottawa. The premise is simple. Be kind. Be kind in your community, be kind in your work place and be kind in your schools.
A couple of weeks ago, Candace called me. She wanted to see how we could help get the word out about Kindness Week and start a Kindness Movement.
I'm all about any kind of momement that doesn't involve poop and was totally on board but wasn’t sure how to approach it. Then last week I went to the Blissdom Canada Conference. Being surrounded by so many incredible, self-motivated, talented women inspired me to be more actively positive in my life. And I knew as soon as I started writing how I wanted to help Candace.
Today, with your help, we’re going to start a Kindness Movement.
How does it work? Simply be kind. We’d like everyone to do one act of random kindness each day. This isn’t a huge endeavour, you are in control of how you will be kind. Large or small, every act of kindness counts and can change people's lives in the process. Whether you hold the door open for the person behind you, smile at the tired cashier and ask how her day is, then listen when she responds, bake cookies for a neighbour, or donate canned goods a food bank....simply be kind.
You may find incorporating acts of kindness into your life is a bit like learning to exercise. I’ll be the first to admit that many times I have the best of intentions and let them fall to the wayside – I’m busy, I’m having a bad day, I’m so caught up in my own minutia it doesn’t occur to me. When you first begin, doing random acts of kindness may not feel natural and you will need to put thought into the process, but over time it will become an essential part of your life and like exercising, skipping a day makes you feel a little less energetic, a little less inspired, a little less....there.
Because helping other people feels good.
The second part of this is spreading the word. Tell your friends, family, co-workers, and kids and get them involved. Come here and leave a comment telling us what your random act of kindness is each day. And call us on ours. Ask us what we did to be kind each day.
If you’re on twitter, tweet the crap out of your kindness and use the hashtag #BeKind.
So maybe you’re reading this and you have no idea what you can do every day. Here’s the great thing...you could do the same one thing every single day and that would be totally coolio! There’s no failure here, all you need to do is simply be kind.
Think about that for a second.
To be successful at this, once a day you put kindness into the universe.
Then spread the word. Like the Breck commercial from the 70’s, if you tell two friends, then she tells two friends and so on and so on, pretty soon we’ll have a kindness revolution on our hands.
And maybe then we’ll be reading less about bullying and racism, conflicts and road rage, murders and suicides and more about goodness, the kindness that’s within us all.
Isn’t that worth one small act of kindness each day?
Looking for inspiration? Here's a list of Random Acts of Kindness to get you on your way.
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