The following is an excerpt from another blog I began writing after my husband passed away. I just wanted to share on this blog because I had been searching Pinterest for ideas on how to Pay It Forward. I hope that by sharing, someone else might be inspired to do these or similar Acts of Kindness. If you do, please share in the comments, or let me know of other good deeds you did! Thanks!
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So, remember how I had started doing some
Acts of Kindness to Pay it Forward during the Christmas season? Well, I'm trying to continue doing more of that stuff throughout 2014. January is almost done, and I think I've been doing pretty good so far!
Here's [6 more Acts of Kindness]:
1) I let someone go in line ahead of me at Kohl's. I had $20 worth of Kohl's Cash to spend, and I had found $21 worth of stuff to buy (you know that's how I roll!). Well, there were 3 check-outs open, and as usual, I pick the one with the slowest people ever in front of me. I could see one of the lines moving a lot quicker, there was actually nobody behind the current person checking out. Instead of switching lines myself, I pointed it out to the person in front of me (the person ahead of her was the one being ridiculously slow with her purchase) and let her take that spot, so she was able to check out faster. It wasn't anything major, but I still consider it an Act of Kindness. :-)
2) I brushed snow off the car parked next to me at work as I was leaving one day. Ever since then, I try to brush off snow on the passenger side of the car next to me, so that way the person doesn't have to walk around their entire vehicle to brush it off, or hopefully it saves them at least 30 seconds of time in the cold! I'm on that side of their car anyways, getting into my driver's seat, so it's just a quick swipe as I walk by.
3)
I recycled some of the Christmas cards we received with this unique method from
St. Jude's Ranch for Children. Basically, they recycle cards and then sell them to raise money for their program. Good for the planet and good for people too! Someone at my work was sending in a box, so I was able to include mine with his large shipment.
4)
I made a small donation to Momsbloom to express my thanks for the help they provided after Will was born. You and I had meant to do that anyways, right after I had returned to work from maternity leave. But with the madness that ensued a month later, I obviously never got around to it until now.
5)
I donated your frequent flyer airline miles to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I hope that's OK with you! :-) At first I thought I would have to go through the hassle of having your miles transferred into my name, and all that junk. But then I realized I just needed your frequent flyer number (which was in our joint email account, so it was easy to find), so I just entered that info in, and boom, over 20,000 miles donated! I know you won't be using them, and I didn't want them to go to waste... So, when I discovered that miles could be donated, I saw it as another opportunity for kindness! I also discovered that you can donate miles directly from most
major airlines websites. There are quite a few organizations that accept these donations from the airlines website. But I just went straight through the
Make-A-Wish Foundation's website, just to make sure they were going to the right place!
6)
I signed up to be a bone marrow donor! As you know,
my cousin's daughter has Fanconi Anemia (FA), and I think one of the treatments is a bone marrow transplant (at least, from what I understand...), so that is how I learned about becoming a bone marrow donor. The process was really easy, I took a bunch of pictures of the packet of stuff I got (see below). All I had to do was take a swab to the inside of my cheek, and send it in the envelope they provided. If I'm a match for somebody, the process doesn't sound too bad for the donor (I think it's more complicated for the person actually receiving it though...). I think since I can't donate blood (remember when I puked two different times all over the Innotec gym, once was beautiful Oreos...), I figured this was a unique opportunity to possibly help somebody someday. Each packet comes with another kit for a friend to sign up to be a donor, and for some reason I received 2 packets, so maybe I'll find 2 other people I know to sign up (that would be like extra credit for this Act of Kindness!).
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| The bone marrow donor packet that arrived in the mail. |
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| Info on the back of the packet. |
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| I have another kit for a friend if I can find one who wants to become a donor too (I actually have 1 more because I got 2 packets for some reason!) |
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| Stuff on the inside of the packet. |
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| More stuff from the packet, like the envelope and the swabby things. |
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| Info on the back of the envelope that you put the swabby things in. |
See, I told you a took a bunch of pictures of the stuff... I'm picture crazy like that! :-)
So yeah, those are some of the little things I've been doing lately. I really liked these little Acts of Kindness because they were easy and free (except the Momsbloom thing, but that was planned a long time ago). Thinking of things to do, and researching different charities and organizations has kept my mind occupied, and given me an outlet for something to do. I think I'm doing pretty good on this New Years Resolution so far. But it is only January still... :-P
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