I always let myself be bothered by the idea of random acts of kindness. On the surface it sounds so positive. You can find it many places and spoken by many people…how the world would be changed and transformed by random acts of kindness. It just isn’t quite right with me.
Here is a definition of random from dictionary.com: lacking any definite plan or prearranged order; haphazard. Haphazard? Really? Is that how we should aspire to be kind…haphazardly, without any preparation? I don’t think so. I think kindness should be intentional. That’s how we can change the world…with intentional acts of kindness.
We shouldn’t leave kindness to chance…or haphazard-ness.
We can prepare by developing humility and empathy. A mindset, a walking around the world consciousness, that everyone is just like me. We all have challenges, heartache, despair, worry, anxiety. We are all caught off-guard by a diagnosis, a sudden loss of a loved one, a natural disaster or accident. If we stop and think about it, few of us would exchange our own life circumstances for another’s…we really are wise enough to know that we all have our hurdles.
I think that is enough to inspire me to be intentionally kind. As often as possible. To as many as possible. All the time.
Plan to be kind.
Please.
With much love,
Paula
