On a limb with Claudia

This two minute video shares an interesting idea. What if you used a card to indicate that you had just given someone an anonymous act of kindness? These cute cards encourage that person to, in turn, do something nice for someone else. You could start a revolution in your own home town.

Unfortunately, they will only ship within Australia, but luckily there are a number of websites where you can print your own cards.

• Here you can print kindness quotes onto stickers which you can add to the backs of your letters or cards. You never know what might happen.
• On the One Act of Kindness site, you are able to print ‘One Act of Kindness’ Cards. These cards encourage reciprocity as well and a connection to the site.
• Chris Dumure designed these beautiful acts of kindness cards. They are available for you to print out at The Gift of Kindness site has posters and cards you can print out and use.

I’m not sure I would ever use a kindness card.  While I get the benefit of encouraging people to continue the kindness, it feels a little artificial to me. What about you? Would you add a card with your kind act?

Check out other simply kind posts: Remote Treechanger

Continue Reading

This video will bring tears to your eyes. It did mine.

The man is Maurice Cheeks. He’s an assistant coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder. And my guess is that he’d never met the girl before.

Kindness. It’s just not that hard.

Continue Reading

“That best portion of a good man’s life,
his little, nameless, unremembered,
acts of kindness and of love”
–Wordsworth

Continue Reading

Once a year, when I got to my Optometrist, Dr. Sumner, I come face to face with my horrendous childhood. Our laughing visit always takes a downward turn when he puts the drops in and leaves the room. It’s time to dilate my eyes so he can look at my retina.

You see, the eyes record of every violent, abusive act. Like a stamp, every violent act imprints itself on the retina.

While I wait for my eyes to ‘dilate really wide,’ so he can see the folds, tears, holes and damage from my early life, I have to face myself and my past. When Dr. Sumner returns, I’m usually very sad.  I sniffle, wipe a few tears while he gets ready to look at my retina.

In the past, I’ve seen doctors who will look in my eyes and say, “What the hell happened to you?”

There I am, blinded, with my big dark eyes dilated, trying to explain my early life – schizophrenic mother, depressed father, alcoholic grandfather, and… and…

Dr. Sumner is much kinder than that. He usually smiles then says, “Let’s take a look.”

We go through the various lens and lights. He tells me what he’s doing. Then usually ends with:

“Everything’s still settled. That’s good. We’ll check again next year.”

Kindness.

You never know when you need it. And sometimes, the kindest thing is a good hearted man who doesn’t say the obvious.

>>>>>>>>

If you get a chance, please consider donating to provide school supplies for Iraqi kids. They deserve a chance. We can give it for less than the cost of a pizza.

>>>>>>>>

Visit other Simply Kind Tuesday blogs

Remote Treehugger

Continue Reading

Somethings just make sense. If you teach a child to hate, a child will hate their entire life. If you give a child a chance, that child has a chance to create the life he or she wants. That just makes sense to me.

When I heard about the school supplies for Iraqi children campaign, that made sense to me too. Team Taji, in Taji Iraq, are attempting to put together 10,000 packets of school supplies. I found out about it through a friend of a friend. Sergeant Aidan Wood asked if I might collect a few school supplies and send them to him by October 10, 2009.

The school supplies cost about $17. We’ll pick up the shipping.

I asked Aidan why he was doing this. He said:

“I got involved for several reason, I’ve always believed that if it its within my abilities to help someone I should. I also have a daughter back in the states who is starting 1st grade this year and I’m going to miss that. Helping these kids makes it a little bit more like home for me doing for them what I can’t do for my daughter. Its also I nice change of pace from running missions.”

I’ve set up a page with more details. We’ll keep the donation button up until September 12, 2009. Then we will do the shopping and shipping to Iraq. With any luck, we’ll be able to help them meet their goal.

In Aidan’s words : “Anything you can do to help is greatly appreciated.”

Continue Reading

About a year ago, I started to get this terrible pain in my heels.  It came on suddenly, almost out of no where. I had been running stairs every Sunday so I assumed the pain was due to the stair running. I stopped running stairs and assumed the pain would go away.

It didn’t.

Over the course of the last year, I have tried acupuncture, chiropractors, drugs, various new shoes (4) and inserts. Some things have eased the pain, but nothing has taken the pain away. In fact, most things made the pain worse.

After enduring countless flakey practitioners, spending lots of money on experts, I finally decided to let Google help me. Maybe there was an answer I hadn’t thought of? Maybe I’d find a solution to my problem?

I found this video on WebMD (Healing Heel Pain). After more research, I found that this stretch is the ONLY proven effective treatment for plantar fasciitis and it’s malicious friend, Achilles tendonitis.

In my efforts to be kind to people, I completely forgot about being kind to myself. I’ve lived with this heel pain for a YEAR and never looked it up on Google. I assumed that professionals would help me. Someone else would know exactly what to do for this pain. This wise person would save me from daily pain.

Being responsible for myself is kindness. Giving myself my own resources is a great kindness. When I am strong, and pain free, I am then able to help others.

That’s the order of things : 1. Use resources for yourself, 2. Get strong, healthy, capable, 3. Give to others.

What is your order of things? Are you able to keep this order?

Continue Reading

“We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference,
ignore the small daily differences we can make which,
over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.”

William George Jordan

Small daily kindness can change the world.  What small daily acts of kindness do you inflict upon the world? Let’s make a list.

I’ll start with some easy ones:

• Say ‘Good morning’ and smile to everyone I see.
• Say ‘Thank you’ and ‘Please’ when interacting with people.
• Remember to celebrate people’s birthdays
• Make efforts to support people’s dreams
• Share your brownies with a neighbor
• Change the sheets when your partner is ill
• Follow up with a friend
• “Drop a dime in a beggars hand not words of “your” wisdom.” The Walking Man Mark
• “I find I’m a lot happier when I cast a smile upon those who approach rather than putting my head down as if not to notice their presence. Everybody, at some point, just needs to be acknowledged.” Miss Riss from Wild Hair
• “It may sound silly, but I pick up litter when I see it. I tell my kids: ‘We can’t do everything, but we should do what we can.’” Footpad
• “Now that there are so many opportunities online, I try to help new educators and anyone interested in what we do….get noticed and learn more about networks, teaching and learning. I try my best to interact and respond to new people who are just starting by being colleagues “friends” with them on Plurk, CR2.0, Twitter, Facebook, etc.” Sheryl A McCoy
• “I try to compliment everyone I see on a daily basis. “Nice tie.” “Great outfit.” “Cute hair.” Always smile at strangers!” Jean May
• “Say something nice when someone feels uncomfortable;  help computer-newbies without making them feel stupid;  put my arm around someone who obviously need it but can’t ask, if strangers just touch their arm or hand lightly; hold the door for someone who has his/her hands full;  do something kind anywhere and anytime I can” Tink
• “Treat others the way you want to be treated; share a hug, give a smile, approach those that others tend to shun (homeless, etc.) and hold a conversation. Everyone has a lesson to teach and a lesson to learn. I try to find my lesson and joy in every situation. It may take me a few days to decompress and coming off the emotion of the situation, but in the end if find that the most emotional situations were my biggest lessons on my journey to a better me” Zengoddess Jen
• I try to incorporate a small adventure into every day for my husband with Alzheimer’s, a meal out, a photo shoot in a new neighborhood, even just a walk on the beach with a friend’s dog and a smoothie, so that his life doesn’t feel so empty as he steadily loses himself. I hadn’t thought of it as a particular kindness, though, just an accommodation to an extremely heartbreaking and life-changing illness.” Heart in San Francisco

Now it’s your turn. What small acts of kindness do you do?

Leave your answers in the comments. One lucky commenter will win a copy of MJ Ryan’s new book AdaptAbility: How to Survive Change You Didn’t Ask For

Continue Reading

Simple words. Yet they launched me into working on Denver Cereal.

I can’t count the number of times I stopped doing something because of something someone said. I stopped writing because a college professor told me I’d never be able to write a college English paper. I stopped running because I was told I ‘couldn’t’ because of my back injury. The list goes on and on.

Most people are more than willing to tell you NOT to do something – anything.  There’s nothing more cruel than encouraging someone to be luke warm, mediocre and to not try.

Sure, if you don’t try, you won’t fail. If you don’t try, you won’t fall flat on your face. But what’s so wrong with falling? What’s the big deal about losing? Who cares if you fail?

We all fall. We all fail. We all lose.

Why not encourage people to try? Why not say go for it? What do we have to lose?

My kindness challenge for this week is to encourage everyone I interact with this week. I will shuck the self loathing and cruelty that goes along with telling someone what they cannot do.

Continue Reading

You remember the story – Prince wants a real princess for a wife. His mother tests out the potential bride by putting a pea under twenty matresses. The potential bride felt the pea and was declared a true princess.  Because truly, “nobody but a real princess could have such a delicate skin.”

Nice story.

What do we do with the princesses in our lives? These are the people who’s skin (metaphorically, or literally) is so delicate that they feel every bump, every comment, every pea in their path.

I believe they truly suffer. I do.

And sometimes? I want to slap them out of my misery.

Visions of slapping the princesses dance happily through my head.

Sigh.

I know this to be true. There have been moments in my life when even the slightest injury felt life threatening. I can remember times when I took something out of context and used it to injur myself. I know there are times that, like the princess, I wasn’t responsible for my own wellbeing and moved away from the hard, painful things in my life.

In remembering my own actions, I find something that looks like compassion.

Whether I believe it’s a pea or a mountain, this person is suffering.  Kindness comes easily once I get out of my judgements and into my heart.

~~~~~

Check out other Simply Kind Tuesday posts

Remote Treehugger

Continue Reading

Last week, while walking with a client on the Cherry Creek Bike Path, a biker hit me with his hand. His hand out to the side, moving fast, his hand thumped my back. He hit me so hard that I fell forward a few steps.  I said a loud, “OUCH!” The biker zoomed off to join the crowd of ‘bike to work day’ riders.

Did he hit me on purpose? I don’t know.

Did he know who I was? I doubt it. My back was to him and I was wearing a jacket I almost never wear.

Was it an accident? No, I honestly think that if it was an accident, he would have stopped to see if I was injured.

So there I am – client talking about her issues, pain in my back, not sure if I’ve reinjured my recently recovering neck – walking along the bike path.

What is a kind person to do?

For a moment, I became an enraged victim. I have a spinal cord injury! I could have easily been seriously hurt. My client is a small woman. If he had hit her, she would have been injured. He had no right to hit me – ever – let alone for walking on a path designed to be shared by bikes, walkers, runners, dogs, and everyone else in between.

I chose to let it go.

One thing I’ve learned on this kindness journey is the lesson of hot potato.

Here’s a guy who, for whatever reason, decided to assault a stranger. In my imagination, he’s angry with all the amateur bikers. He’s worried about work or simply just angry about his life. Who knows? Maybe his wife found out about his trip to see his mistress in Argentina.

Anyway, he holds a hot potato.

Stretching out his hand, he waps me on the back. In this way, he transfers his rage and impotence to me. I become the enraged victim. By taking his hot potato, I am forced to carry his rage, impotence or simple indifference to another human being traveling along the same byway.

After complaining a bit to my friends, I decided to let it go.  I chose to give this small kindness to myself. By letting it go, I was relieved of the rage and impotence created in the act.

The only thing I carry is a bruise from where the side of his hand collided with my back.

Letting go is a gift that I give myself. Ultimately, by giving myself this kindness, I can maintain my own equanimity. I’m available to be kind and balanced to the people in my life.

~~~~~~~

Simply Kind Tuesday participants

Remote Treehugger – Kindness songs

Kim Smith – Benevolence

Continue Reading