One Anonymous Kindness a Day
By Rochel Harris

One anonymous kindness a day. I figured I'm already doing lots of "kind" things for the kids and hubby so I'll just do one anonymously and we'll get the ball rolling. I soon realized that this is harder than it seems. Apparently I have done a good job of training my kids to say thank you, because they demanded to know who had perpetrated such kindnesses as making their beds and straightening up their rooms. I guess that's better than not noticing (that has happened as well).  One child went so far as to accuse the doer of this "good deed" of moving his stuff where he didn't want it moved (a valid point perhaps).

Nonetheless, I moved my efforts out of the house to strangers and the like who may be less inclined to try to uncover my anonymous secret.

That's when the real work started. Looking for good deeds to do is hard. I don't know what my neighbors need (besides milk), and it's hard to lend milk anonymously. Still recovering from the unhappy child who's things were moved against his will during my kindness, I'm hesitant to do anything to intrusive for my neighbors. I'm wondering if it will take a while to start noticing the needs of others. It's like I'm in kindness boot camp, retraining myself to pay attention to what people are lacking and then devising a plan to step up to the plate.

Of course I help people out whenever the opportunity comes up and I'm able. But that's usually when they knock on my door and ask for the milk. This counts as kindness but I can feel that it's on a different level than helping someone out anonymously. I'm gonna keep my eyes and ears open and I'll let you know what I come up with.

Helping Others