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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