I woke this morning knowing without any doubt that the world about me was changing at an ever-increasing pace. At the same time though, I could not shake a sense of nagging unease that rather than for the better that it was moving in the opposite direction. The Monday morning feeling you might say but no it wasn't Monday, and I knew that it was not just that…
As I sipped my morning cuppa my thoughts went to an image of a 'Thank You' card with flowers on that said:
‘Thank you for your Kindness.
And I realised that I had neither sent or received a 'physical' tangible card for a very long time…Plenty of greetings yes but all were electronic.
Now, I do realise that you don’t have to send a physical card because the reality is that the majority seem to like saying stuff online currently (because it's
amazingly convenient and quick,) .
We are all guilty and it has become a way of life, even I am posting this on on my blog on the Net!
So I do accept that in today’s digital world, comms have changed, but something deeper still niggled at me inside.
My thoughts moved on to a ‘what if’ scenario - in that because we are increasingly getting further away from physical acts of kindness (ie sending a physical card in the post – or thanking someone personally one to one for being kind, are we missing an opportunity?
Even better, can we do that physical act of kindness ourselves for someone else?) or is it that the very way we think or don’t think of kindness and what constitutes kindness is changing in our society?
I see a lot of posts on my SM accounts to do with Mental Health and especially Depression.
What seems like every day you hear of someone committing suicide, often these are young people who have so much to give to the world.
Now they will NEVER be able to give it, or share it with others because their life was cut short: Cut short too often for reasons that were only known to, or felt by, them.
A tragedy - because they will not be able to feel the joy that it brings to themselves or to another by the giving and receiving of a random act of kindness.
A few years ago now there was a movement which started (out of the USA I think) and a film made called ‘Pay it Forward’. It was based on the idea that even before someone did something that you could thank them for, an individual would be the giver of a ‘random’ act of kindness – very often to someone they didn’t know, and as a result of this random act.
The consequence was an outpouring of goodness more far reaching than anyone could anticipate. In the film – (and I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it but would recommend that they do) - the ending is bitter-sweet.
In the films message one thing stood out for me alone in that this phenomenon, notion, idea whatever you like to label 'Pay it Forward' that one message changed both the individual and the wider community thinking on a permanent and deeper level.
The film concludes to show some wonderful life-changing events for family and community networks.
So, when someone says to you 'you're a lifesaver' - do they actually mean it literally and on a deeper level; or did you give them a lift when it was raining heavily and it stopped them getting wet on their way to work?
Some random acts of kindness really can be life saving, but if you are the person that did that random act of kindness and did 'Pay it Forward' you may never know how you changed that person's for the better. You may indeed have saved their life when they needed it most and now they are able to go on with a much brighter future.
At this time of year when many of us are in celebratory mood and happy emotions run high there is another 'darker' side of the coin.
I remember in particular ia few years ago in the UK. A tragic turn of event resulted in 39 illegal immigrants being found dead in a locked container. They had been left to die starved of oxygen and were frozen. They had come to the UK in search of a new and better life for themselves - yes it was via an illegal route but no one knew their circumstances and what had forced them to such desperate measures.
Random acts of kindness and respect by the Emergency services who found the victims of the illegal human traffickers saw them treating the 39 peoples bodies with respect and bowed heads with hats removed as they painstakingly removed each person. To me it says much about our often lambasted public services - they are people and human too and sometimes have horrific heartbreaking work to do.
The 39 had very little when they set off on their arduous journey. - Identifying each individual's family would have been an arduous and painstaking task.
The cost of doing this was high, but just this small mark of respect in treating each individual as potentially having their own story and a family who would want their relatives to be laid to rest with dignity and respect to me is priceless.
It was the very least we could do as a nation to show that we valued their humanity . The illegal humanity traffickers who sought to deprive their fellow human beings of their humanity were caught and justly punished.
Similarly, again at a similar time of year there was a senseless evil act in New Zealand. This time many Muslims were machine gunned down as they went to pray at the Mosque - this time in the name of the shooter's extremist religious and political thoughts.
This horrendous act took many many lives and shocked the local population who had previously lived in harmony.
What happened as a result was an outpouring of love and coming together of ordinary people in New Zealand to show solidarity of that love and acceptance between people of difference (nationality, faith, and other discriminatory prompting differences). This positive and loving response is what mattered then and what matters today in reply to that monstrous day,
It is in this way that the wider population and ordinary New Zealand people will be remembered. Not for the senseless act by one individual but by the laying on of kind hands and being of kindred spirit.
Mass shootings in the USA and in other parts of the world are becoming all too common, humanity for some is cheap, but as a result of these terrible deeds, the warm of human kindness prevails and people come together.
There have been times for such when many of us can remember a time when we gave or received such a gift of kindness when an emergency or critical situation arose so we know just how powerful that intervention can be…
… but again ‘what if’ we, as individuals, as a community, as a nation, as global human beings we resolved to invoke that ‘act of human kindness’ more often in a small way or daily basis?
What if we were to go out of our way to to thank someone personally, or send a physical ‘thank you note’ written by our own hand and sent through the post to cheer someone’s morning – what effect on someone’s life may that have?
If people who are struggling feel loved and wanted – we may not always understand the pain they feel; but what potential there is for change in that person’s life if we could make what seems like such a small act of random kindness.
What negatives could be turned to positive?
It may even save someone’s life – and I truly believe that is not an exaggeration. (A thank you with a genuine smile, holding an older person’s hand and spending a little time talking to them, telling a friend they are really cool and you love having them in your life and your so happy that they are your friend…giving a lift to someone to hasn’t got transport or finds it difficult to get out and about, there’s millions of small random acts of kindness that could change a person’s day and the way they look at our world).
To make a point of saying thank you to someone is to make that person feel special and also tells them that they are appreciated. They are validated for who they are and what they do and there can be no greater affirmation to a person than this.
Its the difference between negative and positive if the person reframes their thinking does not ''Pay it Forward' because he/she thinks its not cool to do good stuff for others. That person will begin to spread light and influence others as being known for their generosity of human spirit and kindness towards others.
The world has got to be a better place if we can reverse the wheel of disinterest, individualism, and isolation that seems to be ever-present in today’s society?
Can you help to reverse it?
So, you might think what can I do to personally change things?
You can you know, because it's all the little things you do that add up (the random acts of kindness) that go into changing people's individual psyche, and eventually that changes wider community thinking and so on and so on.
It's called MOMENTUM …
If you have got to the end of this mega post then I applaud you! If perhaps one sentence, or even one word that I have written has spoken to your heart and you get the message I am trying to give, then please share this with others and your friends as widely as possible.
Hopefully as the saying goes – you only need to know 6 people for your message to reach all people across the planet. If we can change one person’s thinking and potentially save one young life then our ‘Sharing’ will have been worth it.
As always and because we are what we are and it is what it is.
Whether your 'Pay it Forward' be great or small - PLEASE know that it will change someone's life or thoughts for the better and more positive just by your random act of kindness.
Yours as always in love and friendship for this wonderful day we have been given. Oomi
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