Random Acts of Goodness

In Random Acts of Kindness from Learning is Growing,  Kathy Perret asks,

“What can you do to spread Random Acts of Kindness? Here are some “You’ve Been RAK’ed” cards to help get you started. Yet, no card is necessarily needed when doing a Random Act of Kindness!

What will you do today?

Go out and spread some cheer! Let’s keep making the world a better place! Pay it forward!”

This had me thinking about a member of the online knitting community who sadly passed away suddenly on November 27, 2012. She leaves behind a husband and 2 young children. Karrie Steinmetz was a designer, blogger, and a video podcaster also known as KnitPurlGurl on Ravelry. She will be dearly missed by all.

The reason I thought of Karrie was that about a month or two ago, she started Random Act of Pattern Tuesday. She encourages knitters and crafters to gift a pattern randomly to others. She did this out of the goodness of her heart and others picked up the challenge to do the same.

On the Tuesday after we all heard the sad news about Karrie, many patterns were gifted in memory of her. It was fascinating to watch all the love being spread and it really helped ease the pain and sorrow of losing such a giving caring person.

Karrie took this idea of Random Act of Kindness to heart and incorporated it in with what she loved to do.

Some people I have mentioned this to have told me that they have a hard time thinking of something special to do that would be considered kind and not weird. The thing is that being kind does not have to be something special. It can be something small or simple but someone out there will appreciate the kindness in whatever form it may come. Kindness doesn’t mean that someone has to spend a lot of money or time. It might be holding the door for someone or helping someone elderly with something.

Maybe people need to think of what they love to do and think of how they can do something kind for someone who loves to do the same thing. Or maybe using this talent or love and do it for someone who can’t do the same thing.

Here are some examples:

Photography: If you love taking photos, maybe you can offer to take a photo of someone who doesn’t have a camera or doesn’t usually take photos of them and offer to send it to someone they care about.

Knitting: Make something for someone (person or animal). Gift a pattern or yarn to someone.

Sewing: Offer to repair something that someone needs fixed. Sew buttons on for an elderly person who has arthritis and can’t do this.

Gardening: Offer to weed or plant something for someone.

Handyman: Offer to change light bulbs or smoke detector batteries for someone elderly. Clean out gutters for an elderly person.

Writing: Send note cards to people who you know are shut in or you haven’t seen in a long time. Send an anonymous note to someone whose garden looks pretty in the spring and summer or house looks nicely decorated for a holiday.

Helper: Volunteer at a local nursing home or soup kitchen for a day. Ask an elderly person if they need anything lifted or moved in their house.

Do you do random acts of kindness? If so, what are some of the things that you do? Please share.

Image: 'Random Acts'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8628862@N05/2300235407
Found on flickrcc.net