Volunteer at a Charity.

Today's act of kindness is to volunteer at a charity.

Most charities need a bunch of help over the Christmas holidays and in the early part of the new year, particularly ones that deal with helping people with housing and heating over the winter. It is a great time to spend some time with your family doing something for the good of others. If you are out of ideas of where to volunteer look up your local animal shelter, library, food bank, homeless shelter, or religious institution are great places to start for places who need volunteers.

Take Supplies to an Animal Shelter

Today's act of kindness is to take supplies to an animal shelter.

Animals are cold in the winter too and this time of year lots of people find animals who have been left out in the cold and bring them in to shelters. Shelters also have been dealing with the influx of newborn animals (particularly kittens) and so are often down on money. So ask your local shelter what they might need and bring them a few things.

You can also help out animals that are in the cold. If you have feral cats in your area, you can make boxes for them so they can be warm in the winter (http://www.neighborhoodcats.org/HOW_TO_FERAL_CAT_WINTER_SHE…). Also, if you do that you might want to consider contacting trap neuter release programs in your area that can help make sure the cats you give shelter to are taken in so they cannot have kittens the next spring and add to the feral cat problem.

Give Up Your Place in Line

Today's act of Kindness is to give up your place in line So many people are so busy during this season and are going crazy and it is important to pay attention to the world around us. I know I have been thankful to someone who saw I forgot an item for dinner and was running into the store and let me go ahead of them. I have seen the thankfulness in the eyes of a parent who I let go in front of me when the kids were at the end of their attention span for standing in line. Again, the little things can make a big difference to someone else. So look around and see if you can help someone today by letting them go first.

Donate Food to a Local Food Pantry

Today's act of kindness is to Donate Food to a Local Food Pantry. 

I'd like to remind you all that in addition to all of the regular food, you might want to put some gluten, lactose, soy, nuts, or other free from items in you donation box. Some people go free from these things as a "diet fad" but there are a number of people who are allergic or intolerant. These people end up needing to use the food bank as well and often free from food is more expensive and not normally donated so the options of those who are allergic/intolerant or those who have children who are can be limited. This time of year many grocery stores have donation boxes for the local food bank as do many religious buildings. So the next time you go to the store to do your normal shop add a few things to the cart - things you need plus an item or two from the free from section and put it in the donation box. What to you is $5 which can be a gift or two in a stocking can make someone actually have a meal they can eat for Christmas.

Do the Little Things. . .

Have missed a few days for acts of kindness so I am putting several of them together for a few days but ones that you can do on the same day if you are following them with me.


Act of Kindness #5: Compliment a Stranger.

Act of Kindness #6: Drop Change in a Parking Lot for Someone to Find

Both of these are about how we can effect people around us by little actions we don't even realize. Sometimes a compliment or finding change on the ground can make our day when we are sad. When life is really bad, the small things seem even more important to me. Giving these things might seem like it might be unimportant, but they can make a big difference to someone.

Smile at Everyone You See Today

Act of kindness four today is smile at everyone you see.  Sometimes this can be hard.  Not because anyone is mad, but because we all get caught up in our own heads.  This is about making an effort to be aware of the people around you as well as your surroundings.

Pay for a Stranger's Coffee

Today's act of kindness is to pay for a stranger's coffee.  Although traditionally this is done for a hot coffee at a coffee shop, this could be any sort of pay it forward choice: drinks, sandwiches, etc.  If you don't want to give directly to a person, you can pay the cafe and just tell them to take it off of the next person's bill.  If you have homeless or people who need a meal that you see, you can ask them if they want something and go with them to eat or drink and have a conversation, or you can ask the waiter or waitress to go outside and deliver the drink/meal to the person. All ideas of kindness for today.

Sending Cards to a Nursing Home

Act of kindness number two came out of the jar as send cards to a local nursing home.  You could also send cards to a women's shelter or youth home.  Remember that the managers will possibly want to read the cards so send them unsealed in a big envelope if you are using bought cards.  Also some cards support causes so if you are purchasing and not making cards buying them so they support a cause that works with the place your are sending them is also a nice thought.  The ones I am sending support Parkinson's research.

Acts of Kindess

Leading up to Christmas a lot of people need a bit of a pick-me-up in our communities.  This year, I am doing acts of kindness each day until Christmas.  I am using a pool of acts that I got from Sweatpants and Coffee with a few of my own added.  I will explain some of my own here on the blog when we get to them in the month.  In a link to the meaning of my blog, this is based off of a traditional advent calendar and can be incorporated into an advent calendar for those who are Christian.  I also hope to make this a ritual with my family to do yearly.  If you are interested in seeing my list, I will be posting them daily on twitter.  The first one today is: Give a hug coupon to someone.

Forgiveness . . .

I'm still working on my meditation stuff to present in some coherent form.  I also got some of it from a class and I want to make sure that I reference the ideas and where they come from.  So, I'm going to go to a slightly different topic for this week.

Forgiveness. . .   The concept of doing something "wrong" and then "atoning" for that act (or lack of an act in some cases) is fairly common in religions.  The concepts of what constitutes a "wrong" is different based on religion, culture, and personal moral values.  However, I think we can all agree that we do things that are "wrong" at times.  Weather that is being selfish and eating all the cookies when you could have shared them; standing by and watching someone get bullied without intervening; or yelling at your friend when you were angry and they didn't deserve your anger.  Whatever those "wrongs" are for us personally, they can infect our lives.  We can live our lives filled with regret, reliving those moments when we should have done something else.  Such "wrong" actions can ruin relationships and color our actions and thoughts for lifetimes.