Rainy Day Kindness

Here's another inspiring idea to spread kindness and love like Jesus would want. This was in my email over the weekend from an unknown author. Enjoy ~ Kat

Today it is 39 degrees and supposed to be raining. It would have been the perfect day for me to act upon my Kindness Idea.

I was the lucky winner of the December Kindness Idea's Contest on Helpothers.org - where they give you $100 to carry out your kindness idea. My idea was to purchase umbrellas for shelter on a rainy day and small towels to wife your face and hopefully bring a little smile into your day and hand them out to folks who find themselves caught out in the weather unprepared.

Once I received the check for $100 I ran right out and purchased umbrellas and towels. I laundered the towels and wrapped them around the umbrellas and banded them with a smile card. I placed them them in plastic bags to protect them from moisture, dirt and grime! Then I waited on the rain!!! Lately we’ve had plenty snow…but no rain. Yesterday the rains came! Where were the umbrellas? At my office. Where was I? At home…more than 20 miles from the office. I don’t remember ever wishing for rain before…at least not unless we were experiencing a drought! But lately I have - I'm yearning to start my kindness activity :)! Yesterday we received an inch of rain at our house. It rained all day long!

Today…the forecast was for a mix of rain/flurries. What have we? Partly cloudy skies. Not one drop or flurry. No one in need of shelter today! Still I smile…and eagerly wait for an opportunity.

I recently left four umbrellas at the front desk with the receptionist so that she could hand them out readily to customers in need. I loved letting her share in the fun! They skies held the promise of showers; so I stuck several in my bag on the way to lunch just in case I should find someone in need…but no luck. Oh how I wanted someone to be unprepared! LOL!

But I am ready! It may take me several rainy days before I exhaust my supply…but I’m up for the kindness challenge!

Thank you HelpOthers.org for helping me spread a little sunshine on a cold, rainy day! I know that my day will arrive!!!

Rainy Day Kindness

If you are on the lookout, you can almost always find an opportunity for kindness. I filled my afternoon with small gestures today, they didn't take much time or effort, but I hope they made a small difference to the people who received them.

I was out and about because I had to do a few errands this afternoon. My first stop was the supermarket. I wanted to buy some croissants with chocolate on them for my daughter Rita. I also decided to get a few plain ones for my husband, my mum and me. Armed with the croissants, I went on to my second stop - a local charity bookshop. I wanted to see if they had any books on Unicorns, since Rita loves them (and, I have to admit, so do I).

While I was there, I struck up a conversation with the lady at the counter during which she commented on the smell of my croissants. She said that I was the second person to enter the shop that day with lovely smelling croissants. I jokingly creplied that there was only two things she could do - either avoid them (if she was on a diet) or go to the supermarket and get some. She replied that she would prefer the second option. "Even better", I said, "I will give you mine". With that, I placed them on the counter and walked straight out. I caught her surprised exclamation as I left "I thought you were joking". I hope she enjoyed them.

It had been raining cats and dogs so everyone looked quite soaked . I noticed a homeless lady selling the "Big Issue" (a magazine that supports homeless people) who looked particularly cold so I gave a packet of biscuits and all my change and asked her to keep the magazine.

I then went back to my car. I had to pay for two hours of parking instead of one because I didn't have the correct change, so I still had an hour left on my parking. I waited until I saw a young couple drive in and gave it to them before I left. They were a little surprised and quite pleased.

Then I went home with a smile on my face :-)