A while ago, when blogs were bloggier and social media was more MySpace than Twitter, I started a little project called Simply Kind Tuesdays. It seemed to me that as the world's financial markets were crumbling around us, we could join together in kindness. I have always believed that our strength lies in our capacity to connect with each others.
Every Tuesday for a year, I posted about kindness. It was a fascinating experience for me. The more I focused on kindness, the more kindness I saw in the world. The more I gave to people in kindness, the more kindness I received. With so much going on that year - starting Cook Street Publishing, the Denver Cereal, and publishing the Fey - it was challenging to stay focused on kindness.
But I found kindness everywhere: People's willingness to read what I wrote. My first ever blog tour. My fledgling efforts at marketing myself and my career. Every effort I made was matched with kindness by the people around me. I was literally lifted on the wings of people's kind efforts.
Last week, in the wake of another shooting disaster within a couple miles of my home, I was reminded by Vicki at VixensDen of Simply Kind Tuesdays. With her encouragement, I'm going to launch another year of posts about kindness.
I'd encourage you to join along.
How?
If you have a blog, write about kindness and post it on Tuesdays.
If you don't have a blog, but have a Facebook or Twitter or Google + account, use your Tuesdays to post about kindness.
Here's some ideas for inspiration:
- Look up quotes about kindness.
- Write about kind things you remember from your past or your life.
- Go out of your way on Tuesdays to do something kind for someone - put out a bowl of water for hot and thirsty dogs; bake cookies for your neighbor; share a flower or some vegetables with your neighbors or a charity; volunteer to help someone; mow your neighbor's grass; hold the door for someone else
- What is it you love to do? What is your passion? On Tuesdays, add kindness to what you're passionate about.
We can reorient our lives and our world toward focusing on the kindness that exists around us - rather than the division and contention surrounding each of us. We need each other's kindness more now than possibly ever before.
Will you be kind?
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