Random Act of Kindness #5

One of the immense joys of approaching your 40th birthday is receiving the mailed notification from the Department of Motor Vehicles that you need a new driver’s license.  With a new photo.  New paperwork.  The works.  Wait… am I using my sarcasm font for this post?  Joyous?  Definitely not.  I haven’t updated my license in years – 9 years to be exact.  For once, I actually LIKED the photo they took (despite being pregnant with my second child – maybe it was that maternal glow?) and I was determined to keep that photo permanently affixed to my license for all eternity.  But alas, the choice was not mine to make.  DMV… here I come.

The paperwork was simple.  Name.  Check.  Address.  Check.  Organ Donation.  Check.  I sat holding a numbered ticket waiting to be called, staring at the clock slowly ticking my life away.   Forty minutes later, the dreaded photo had been taken, and I was out the door free to go about my merry way.  There was nothing monumental or exciting about the task, just another line item checked off my to-do list.

Until today.  Scanning through Facebook posts of my friends, one post stopped me in my tracks.  A friend of mine was writing a thank you note to the family whose organ donation extended her father’s life.  Because of one person’s choice to put a check beside “Organ Donation” on their driver’s license, my friend had another 870 days of life, love and laughter with her dad.  One check.  One choice.  870 days.  WOW.  That is what I call an unselfish act of kindness right there!

Which brings me to my Random Act of Kindness for the day.  I am an organ donor.  When my time here on earth is done, I have no need whatsoever for this earthly body God gave me.  Take it.  Use it.  Bless others.  Give someone else the joy of 870 days.  How exciting to know that even after I am gone, I will STILL perform a random act of kindness!

If you are already an organ donor, celebrate your kindness!  If you are not an organ donor, consider the possibility.  You truly can change someone’s life.

If you would like to read my friend’s thank you note click here.  If you would like more information on becoming an organ donor, visit http://www.organdonor.gov.  Be blessed, my friends!