Random Acts Of Kindness On Purpose
"Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you
without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of
God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes,
kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting."
Mother Teresa
This week is Random Acts of Kindness Week, so I thought it
appropriate to explore the role that kindness can play in living
our lives on purpose. Playing with this notion I came up with a
deliciously paradoxical phrase, "random acts of kindness on
purpose." How can an act of kindness be both random and still on
purpose?
Well, the act can be random because we don't necessarily know in
advance when the opportunity to act kindly will arise, and at
the same time it can be on purpose because when that moment does
arise we thoughtfully and with full intention act in a way that
is consistent with our life purpose. Since our life purpose
arises from and is based in the attractive force of unlimited
and unconditional love, it seems a natural place from which to
choose to be kind.
I received an unusual email this week from a well known internet
marketer in which he shared that a friend of his and his
friend's wife had been in a terrible auto accident and she had
been killed. Since the marketer had lost his wife last year, he
had a sense of what his friend was going through, and since his
friend also did not have insurance, the email requested either a
donation be sent or a purchase be made through his friend's web
site.
What an unusual email, I thought when I received it, as I
deleted it. But though I deleted it from my inbox I couldn't
delete it from my mind, so eventually I returned it to my inbox.
Hmm, I thought, a random act of kindness yet on purpose. Here's
just one of many opportunities I have to act kindly to someone I
do not know, will probably never meet, yet can touch with a
little kindness. So, I took the opportunity and sent a small
contribution so this gentleman could bury his wife, and
meanwhile gave a prayer of thanks for my own beloved wife and
life companion, Ann.
NOTE: Want to learn more about Random Acts of Kindness? Visit:
www.actsofkindness.org/