For the past few years around this time of year, I’ve been taking part in what I like to call Mitzvah Day. A Mitzvah is a good deed, an act of kindness. Since today is World Kindness Day, it seemed like the perfect occasion to kick off this effort. It all started because one year I was out doing my holiday shopping and I noticed that there were a lot of grumpy people around. Cutting in line, pushing and shoving, rude comments – essentially a bunch of tired and stressed out shoppers who forgot to be nice to each other. Thus began my annual Mitzvah celebration. On Mitzvah Day, I do as many good deeds as i possibly can for other people.
These Mitzvahs have varied from dropping off homemade cookies to the local fire station to taking a casserole to a friend who was going through a stressful time. They don’t need to take a lot of time or money though. Little things can mean a lot like letting another car in when traffic is heavy, sending someone an email (even just a one liner) to let them know you’re thinking of them, leaving a comment on a friend’s blog or extending some extra bit of kindness (how about a smile?) to someone you see at the store when you’re out shopping. The idea behind Mitzvah Day is to just pay a little more attention, be a little more observant to opportunities to let kindness shine through.
So, who’s with me? I thought I’d like to challenge myself this year so I’m asking all of you to take part in Mitzvah Day with me and help me reach my goal of 500 acts of kindness. To make it a little easier to fit into everyone’s schedule, instead of just one day, I’m declaring the week of November 24th to the 30th as Mitzvah Week. You can simply choose one of the days that week as your own personal Mitzvah Day. That week there will be a blog post here and if you take part, all you need to do is leave a comment on that post with the number of acts of kindness you did on your day. Get the kids, your friends, your family involved! I’ll share ideas for acts of kindness here on the blog between now and then to give you more inspiration. Will you help me reach my goal?
Happy World Kindness Day!
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