Creating Moments with Everyday Kindness

I found this great blog about challenging ourselves to do something kind each day. I've added it to my "I Love to Read..." list - check it out.

I've really been working on being more positive and feeling more serene. Detaching from things and places and people that bring me down. Turning my internal anger into energy that will feed me, not devour me.

I like to think I'm a kind person. I'm very sarcastic and have a very quick, sharp wit and I know that has often put people off, or at least surprised or intimidated them. Sometimes that's necessary I think. When it becomes a wall between you and others, between you and simple pleasures, between your behavior and who you really are - then you "gotta check yourself" as they say.

I've been feeding the squirrels and birds in my yard - so many trees have been lost here for bigger driveways and ugly McMansions that their source of food needs some help. And I've been using that time to reflect a bit - heaven forbid I just sit still and meditate - that makes me feel like I should be doing something.

(btw - whenever I type "meditate" I always spell it mediate at first - am I trying to tell myself something?)

I posted a while back about "Creating a new moment to live in" by drawing on the joy I had found in helping an elderly customer and becoming friends with her. I didn't realize how much joy and peace I could find in little random acts of kindness (I'm stealing from Oprah there) - and how those acts can change the moment for me and others.

The other day my neighbor's trash can flew open and bits of paper were all over her lawn. It only took a moment to clean it all up before it scattered everywhere and I swear that her dog was in the front window smiling at me.

Another neighbor has a small light trash can (we're big on trash here in NJ) and it often ends up in the middle of the road once the collectors have emptied it. I used to ignore it, pay it no mind as cars coming around the curve would swerve to avoid it. I even laughed when another neighbor said "that can is going to cause an accident". Then I started picking it up and throwing it onto their driveway, muttering to myself about stupid people and sloppy garbage collectors and blah-blah-blah. So this time I picked it up, put it in their gate so it wouldn't fly away again and allowed myself to feel good about doing a simple little thing.

At the Stop 'N Shop I collected all the loose carts around my car - it was actually fun to push them real hard into the cart station and watch them bounce off the sides and into each other, makes a wonderful tinny sound, like bumper cars for those of us who can't get our big, elderly butts into a real bumper car.

Just small things - I've done a lot of them but always with an attitude (I am from Brooklyn - it's in the water) - so now I'm "cutting the tude" and taking some pleasure from these moments - without feeling silly or uncomfortable.

In being kind to others I'm learning to be kind to myself.

Originally I was going to post about my trials and tribulations with the doctors and the insurance company - seems my scoliosis may be to blame for some new issues. That whole subject carries so much baggage for me that instead I made the effort to copy and display the lovely Everyday Kindness banner and then link the blog - I wanted to do it as a clickable link within the banner but it was becoming crazy - I really need to learn more about blog layouts!

For those of you who worry about me (Hi Cathy) - I will update on the medical crap - I'm fine - it's just another little hurdle in the obstacle course of life.

Be Kind Out There