Did you know that today, March 1, 2014, is the Annual Melee of Kindness? According to http://www.therandomact.org, over 498 participants in 18 countries performed 156 acts of kindness all in one day last year. How fun!
This year, I’m adding two of my own acts to the list. Read below to find out what I did!
AMOK RAK #1
My niece has a severe dairy allergy that prevents her from enjoying many of the sweet treats children take for granted. Ice cream. Chocolate. Cookies. Cake. Sure, there are substitutes out there she can have but nothing can compare to a surprise trip to an ice cream parlor like Sweet Frog or Coldstone. We were chatting one afternoon and being almost 7 she said that she was too scared to get retested because she knew it would hurt. I told her if she went ahead with the test and found out she wasn’t allergic to dairy anymore that I would take her out and she could get any ice cream she wanted!
Well, my brave little niece went ahead and got retested only to discover she had not outgrown her allergy. No ice cream allowed. Poor thing! I found out what her favorite candies were (that she was allowed to eat) and made her this candy gift instead. It wasn’t much, but it was the least I could do to reward her bravery!
AMOK RAK #2
In preparation of making the candy treat above, I went to our local grocery store to purchase the items needed. As I was walking through the busy parking lot, I heard an older gentleman asking for directions. “Excuse me, can you help me find Fed Ex?” He was holding a piece of paper, pointing to something circled, the Fed Ex emblem bright enough to see several feet away.
Now let me stop here to say I am cautious about speaking to strangers, especially when I am alone. However, this was a very busy parking lot with cars and people all around, and something prompted me to smile and offer my assistance. “Absolutely!” I responded. I walked towards him and sure enough, the item circled on his paper was a street address for Fed Ex. I really had no idea how to get there, so I pulled out my cell phone, located my favorite traffic/navigation app, Waze, and punched in the address.
“Ahhh – that’s why you are lost… this street actually stops at a dead end, then picks back up on the other side of a neighborhood.” I could see the relief flood through his eyes. “Thank you so much!” he replied. “I’ve been driving up and down the road and thought I had lost my mind!”
I explained to him exactly where to go, then we parted ways with smiles on both our faces. It felt good to help out someone in need!
I hope you are blessed by my stories and inspired to do your own RAK today in celebration of AMOK! 🙂
