In the spirit of Random Acts of Kindness, I dedicate these next three days to that venture! Day 13 - ask if I can give free hair ties to Hot Asana Yoga: Gina at Hot Asana Yoga is awesome. She provides free water, free hair ties, and free feminine products in her hot yoga studio. The last yoga class I attended, I noticed that they were out of hair ties, so I thought, if she can provide free hair ties, so can I! I found out where she purchased them (a little sleuth undercover shopping), and I bought a colorful variety to ask if I could place in the bathroom for the next class. Did I reject rejection? Yes, I did! Lesson #13: Even if you think that you will be rejected at the simplest offer of kindness, try it anyway; who knows, you may get a "yes"! Day 14 - write in a dry erase marker on the bathroom at Kabab's: I saw this random act of kindness on the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation website, and I thought I had to try it! Who knew that you can write on a mirror with a dry erase marker, and it washes off the same as if you were on a dry erase board? These are the kind of things I wrote: you are beautiful, you are worthy of love and respect, you are worthy of acceptance from the world and yourself, you are unique, and there is a "U" shaped whole in the UNIVERSE and U are the only one who can fill it! Lesson #14: I felt a little bad for not asking permission for this one, but I wanted to do it as a "surprise" random act of kindness, and I put a #RAKWEEK2018 after my kind quotes. I hope that this brightened someone's day like it brightened mine writing it! Day 15 - ask strangers their biggest fear and greatest joy: For this project, I went to Mead's Corner and had a magical experience. I have to say, this is my favorite project so far, right up there with my first project of giving out Free Hugs at St. Francis Hospital! People were open, kind, and unexpectedly raw in their responses. I was invited to sit down and have a full conversation more often than not, and two hours later I wondered where the time had gone! Lesson #15: People's responses ranged from "family" to "finding my calling and using the gifts that I am meant to use" to "lifelong learning in that there is always another story to be told and something else to learn and gain from the beauty and peace of nature and from others" to "living life to the fullest" and "knowing that I have eternal life in Jesus Christ" for their greatest joy. In the biggest fear category, people said "losing someone close to them," "not succeeding," "going to the dentist," "spiders," "war," and "that I am insane and I've made up every interaction around me." In both categories, several people said that their "children" were their greatest joy and their biggest fear was "having their kids disappear" or "not being a good parent." What I learned, more than anything, through the quantity of similar and/or shared responses, is that even though we are unique as individuals, when we look at what truly matters to us, we are all the same at heart!
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AuthorValerie Ellis, who is in alignment with the Black Lives Matter Movement and everyone whose life is impacted, now or before, by times of social injustice. Archives
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