chain of kindness

i got a call from my friend, Kim, today. she told me that she wanted to share an awesome happening that had just occurred. she was at Target and stepped away from her cart for a moment. when she came back she found an envelope in the cart that said "open me." inside there was a gift card for $25 written out "to: You   from: Your Caring Neighbor" and a card that read "Dear Neighbor, We hope this small gift helps brighten your day! Enjoy!"

how fucking awesome is that? *picture me with arms spread out as wide as possible* this awesome!! except it's even more awesome than that. multiply the distance at which my pictured arms are spread by infinity and there you have it. it's infinitely awesome! aaahh how refreshing. a simple act of kindness for no reason other than to make someone else smile! in a world full of pettiness and selfishness, little things like this really help to restore faith in humanity. and what makes this even better is that there's no face to associate the gesture with. the person/people who wanted to spread a little love into the world didn't even need any acknowledgement. i'll bet that from afar they watched Kim open that gift and to see a smile on her face was just enough to make them feel accomplished. it's a win, win. i'm sure that in that moment all parties involved felt a warmth in their hearts.

after Kim got the gift card she felt like she, too, should do something nice for someone. share the kindness, right? pass it along. so that's what she did. she saw a woman with two children in line and figured that they could use the $25 more than she could. Kim explained how she obtained the gift card in the first place and the woman was really grateful for being chosen next in the chain of good deeds. it would be amazing if that woman then did something nice for someone else and then that person did something similar. the chain of goodness would amass many links. but y'know, even if that specific chain stopped at that woman, the story lives on and hopefully it'll inspire more people to just acknowledge others and maybe do something nice for a stranger every so often.

Kim told me about this immediately after leaving Target because she knew i'd love the story. she also knew i'd write a blog post about it (ha! she was right!) and that it would reach just a few more people.  after hearing about her experience it definitely made me want to do something nice for a stranger. tomorrow i'll start a chain of kindness and hopefully it'll put smiles on faces. maybe you should too! it doesn't have to be monetary. it could be something as simple as making sure an elderly person crosses a busy intersection safely or cracking an appropriate (and hopefully actually funny) joke with a stranger. just a small gesture to make someone else feel good for just a moment in time is worth one small moment of your time, right? share happiness!