#11 & #12 Random Acts of Kindness

#11 & #12 Random Acts of Kindness – 100 day challenge.

All Acts of Kindness are written in the participants own words and the only purpose of this challenge was to scatter kindness.

My act of kindness was very small. While hiking at the local preserve I ran into an old-timer with a cane on the trail who had stopped to say hello.

Normally I would just say hello and continue on with my hike however I stopped and struck up a conversation. He seemed eager to talk so we did for about 20-30 mins. He told me all kinds of stories including how he once worked in the mill at US Steel. He was flabbergasted when I told him I also worked there. That conjured up old memories which he proceeded to tell.

When we parted he seemed very pleased to have run into me and I felt very good about the time spent.

#12 Random Act of Kindness

No activity, no response.

Have a Flan-tastic Day and Scatter some Kindness,

Donna Flanagin

Random me:  Can there really ever be a “small” act of kindness?  I think not.

 

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#9 & #10 Random Acts of Kindness

#9 & #10 Random Act of Kindness – 100 day challenge.

All Acts of Kindness are written in the participants own words and the only purpose of this challenge was to scatter kindness.

I began thinking about who would be the recipient of my random act of kindness… looking, thinking… when it was right in front of me. Staff member didn’t look her usual upbeat self. My day was whelmed with “stuff” and I could easily have simply let her leave without asking “is everything ok?”  I asked and she simply melted with NO  I need to talk.  Opened my office, shared a cup of tea and listened to her anxiety over plan for her son’s evaluation for special services in school. Second guessing what is due to a disease and neurological problems, what was there all along, what if it doesn’t get better, what if!!!!!  What will an IEP be like?  I listened and heard… tell her!… I need to tell her I was in her shoes years ago with my son.  I shared my fears, the successes and all the stuff in between.  Later on my way home, I remembered I had taken a picture of a rainbow that sustained me during anxious times. Sent it to her with a message I clung to: “The rainbow is there after the rain, waiting for the  sun to make its full splendor visible. You will get through the rain, You are the sun in your son’s life.”

She sent a tearful thanks.

 I felt strong and relaxed… this act of kindness gave me a gift of seeing my own abilities to overcome.  Thank you for the gift!

#10 Random Act of Kindess

No Activity, no reponse.

 Have a Flan-tastic Day and Scatter some Kindness,

Donna Flanagin

Random me: Reach out, your experiences can often help others. 

 

#8 Random Act of Kindness

#8 Random Act of Kindness – 100 day challenge.

All Acts of Kindness are written in the participants own words and the only purpose of this challenge was to scatter kindness.

November 15, 2013

On Tuesday of this week, I walked into a cookware store and, just before entering said aloud, “I do not need one more thing.”  Fifteen minutes later I walked out of that store with a pan made specifically for Madeline’s.  Apparently, I was wrong.  I needed that pan.

On Wednesday, I opened up my recipe books and baked, for the first time, Madeline’s and, because Facebook is the place to get feedback, I took a picture of these beautiful little cakes and posted it there.

Within a few minutes of uploading the picture, I received my first post from a friend of mine saying that her daughters’ loved the Madeline’s at Starbucks but they were very expensive for very few Madeline’s.  My friend, (we’ll call her Monica because, well, that’s her name) had looked online for recipes but realized that it required the “special” pan that I just happened to have and some rather exotic lemon zest which I also knew how to obtain.

I baked some Lemon-glazed Madeline’s on Thursday and took a plate of these soft, sweet cakes to Monica to share with her girls.

It may seem like the kindness was me bringing Madeline’s to my friend.  The response I received from first Monica, then her mother was just as sweet as those cakes.  A hug from Monica and watching them taste the Madeline’s gave me a sense of accomplishment.  I enjoyed baking and they enjoyed the product. Win. Win.

Later that day, I received a picture on my cellphone from Monica.  Monica’s little daughter wrote a thank you note on a piece of cardboard and her mom  took a picture of her taking a bite of one of the Madeline’s with the caption, “XOXO”.

I tell you all this because, I was the real beneficiary here.  As I planned my “act”, I visualized how the recipients would respond and that made me feel pretty darn good.  When I plated the cakes to take them to my friends, I was in the moment; paying attention to make sure they arrived in good condition.  When Monica and her mother tasted the cakes, they were pleased and that made me feel wonderful.  Who doesn’t like a hug of gratitude?  No one I know.   Finally, when I saw the picture and the note come through on my cellphone, my heart was opened for the third time that day.

The cakes were nice to give but the reward for a simple gesture was all mine!

 Have a Flan-tastic Day and Scatter some Kindness,

Donna Flanagin

Random me:  Funny thing about a R.A.K., the participant often gets as much joy as the recipient.  That was another reason behind this challenge.

 

#7 Random Act of Kindness

#7 Random Act of Kindness – 100 day challenge.

All Acts of Kindness are written in the participant’s own words and the only purpose of this challenge was to scatter kindness.

Sweetest Lady in the world, was prepared to do 100 days of Random Acts of Kindness !!  I let her know that just one was fine. 🙂

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Today I took a lady to the hospital for a bone scan and pre=admission to get a port put in so we can give her antibiotics directly every 3 hours so the wounds on her leg will heal.  This was my day off but I took the time to do this also.

Tomorrow I am going to visit 2 shut—ins and take them some cookies.

If this is not what you mean then let me know.

 Every day I call my cousin who  is a widow to make sure she is ok.  She has no

Children and lives alone.  She is 84 years old and fell last year and broke her

Hip but she can walk now.

Every Sunday morning I help a lady in my Sunday School class get into church

As she gets very dizzy most of the time unless she has someone to hold on to.

 I hope you have a wonderful day and I will keep you posted as to what I do

Until Jan. 22^nd 2014.

 

Have a Flan-tastic Day and Scatter some Kindness,

Donna Flanagin

Random me:  Most of us do acts of kindness all day long, but sometimes we just don’t “see it”.

 

#6 Random Act of Kindness

#6 Random Act of Kindness – 100 day challenge.

All Acts of Kindness are written in the participant’s own words and the only purpose of this challenge was to scatter kindness.

Love your post, your challenge, and all that it represents. It took me forever to actually put your idea into place which is crazy because it was so simple, and then last week the perfect opportunity just happened.

I walked into Great Clips to get a haircut and there was a soldier there waiting for his haircut. I went in there thinking I hope the line is short because I am in a hurry, and in a nanosecond it hit me how unbelievably small my concern for the 10 minute wait is compared to this guy who straps it on and goes out there to protect my right to get my hair cut whenever I want, wherever I want, however I want, and there are stacks of places in town where I can go get a haircut. All those freedoms that we take for granted every day.

I let the girl at the counter know I wanted to pay for his haircut and then listened to his conversation talking with his stylist while I got my hair cut excited for the chance to do something that could give a boost to a guy who has given me/us 100x that with his time. When I checked out they told him and he right away shook my hand and said thank you very much and really appreciated the surprise. I told him that me and everyone else in there owes him so much more than a haircut – it was the least that I could do.

Funny that for so long I have had it on my to-do list to think of a way to pay it forward and then it just fell in my lap. Thanks for bringing those simple acts of kindness into the forefront of our minds – the world will be a better place because of it. Thanks

 Have a Flan-tastic Day and Scatter some Kindness,

Donna Flanagin

Random me:  Most of us do acts of kindness all day long, but sometimes we just don’t “see it”.

 

#5 Random Act of Kindness

#5 Random Act of Kindness – 100 day challenge.

All Acts of Kindness are written in the participants own words and the only purpose of this challenge was to scatter kindness.

I had 2 $10 coupons off groceries. 
I used one and when I was leaving the store I saw a young mother with small
children and I gave my other one to her to use.  She was very surprised
first of all and very appreciative of the coupon.

 

Have a Flan-tastic Day and Scatter some Kindness,

Donna Flanagin

Random me:  Another great idea is to lay unwanted coupons on the product at the store, and the person that wants that product can use them. 

 

#4 Random Act of Kindness

#4 Random Act of Kindness – 100 day challenge.

I asked 100 people to participate. These Act of Kindness are in the participants own words and the only purpose of this challenge was to scatter kindness.

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Here is Erica’s R.A.K.

A Random Rescue

Yesterday, October 24^th, I “randomly” adopted our 3^rd rescue dog.  I never gave a 3^rd dog a thought seeing that the two rescue dogs we already had seemed to be perfect.  It wasn’t until there was a certain Facebook post from Lakeshore Paws that caught my attention.  I have to start off by telling you that I see and share almost all of the Lakeshore Paws FB posts regarding the need of fosters or adoption….all of them tugging at my heart, but not with the brute force that this particular FB post had done.  It wasn’t the typical post with a picture of a cute dog and how badly he would love a forever home…nope!  It was just a FB post of their adoption flyer.  But this flyer was different….the amount of dogs/cats squeezed onto this 8×10 flyer was what caught my attention.  I thought to myself…’wow, I have never seen this many dogs on their flyers before’….and in that moment a memory flashed into my head of my husband and I riding in the car and him turning to me and saying he was thinking about getting another dog.  So I clicked on the flyer and browsed through the many dogs pictured and only one popped out at me…almost as if it was a larger picture than all of the others.  Pippa was her name.  A Boston Terrier/Pitt Mix rescued just a few days earlier. That morning, before work, I decided to “secretly” make a stop at Lakeshore Paws to have a visit with Pippa.   I spent a few minutes with her and realized that there was NO WAY I would be able to leave her and never come back.  I briefly explained my “secret ops” situation to the lovely volunteer and told her I would be back later.  Walking to my car, I immediately texted my husband….

Text: { I was naughty and went and looked at a dog at Lakeshore Paws }

Within seconds, my phone rings.  “What kind of dog is it? What does she look like? Is she still there?…”  Within an hour, we were back at Lakeshore Paws…and within a few hours after that…Pippa was at our house for an “in-home” trial with our two other dogs.  She is a perfect fit and we are so happy we can give her a forever home that she deserves.

We have renamed her Ivy and she has two sisters, India and Isis.

 

Have a Flan-tastic Day and Scatter some Kindness,

Donna Flanagin

Random me:  I am going to enjoy sharing these with all of you that read my blog.

 

# 2 & 3 Random Act of Kindness – 100 Day Challenge

Scatter Kindness

#2 Random Act of Kindness – 100 day challenge.

These Act of Kindness are in the participants own words and the only purpose of this challenge was to scatter kindness.

Here is Monica’s R.A.K….

I sent a note to a teacher at a local daycare.  (she taught both my children).  My girls both loved her and she has become a  friend.  She is young and doesn’t really know what she wants to do in life – she went to school and got a degree in business while working, but now realizes she wants to work with children but has a business degree.

She has confided in me some days of her frustration.  I just decided to send her a note to give her encouragement to just go for your goals and dreams while you are young.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy…happy blogging!!

~~

Random act #3 = No activity, no response.

When I made a request and got no response, I will just list it like this.

 

Have a Flan-tastic Day and Scatter some Kindness,

Donna Flanagin

Random me:  A personal handwritten note can mean so much, especially with today’s electronic technology.

 

#1 Random Act of Kindness

#1 Random Act of Kindness – 100 day challenge.

These Acts of Kindness are in the participants own words and the only purpose of this challenge was to scatter kindness.  Throughout this challenge you will see many people who just couldn’t stop at one.

~~

I had just bought my Halloween candy for Sterling Hope and I was stopped at a gas station when I saw a little boy hanging out of the window.  He was wearing a skeleton jacket that glowed in the dark and was talking to his dad pumping the gas.  I asked the little boy if I could have the honor of being the first person to give him some Halloween candy since he looked as if he was already getting excited about the holiday.  Big smiles from him and Dad!

Another random act of kindness was to secretly buy the first person who came in after me at the health club a bottle of water.  I wanted to get out of there before they saw me.  But the front desk had trouble with my card and I was able to see the recipient.  It just so happened it was my 7th grade math’s teacher wife.  I knew this because they have come into the store where I work from time to time.  She had a smile from ear to ear.  (so did the  girl at the desk)  She thanked me again as I was leaving and said I really made her day…Thanks for reminding me how good it feels to do something nice for someone else!!!

Have a Flan-tastic Day and Scatter some Kindness,

Donna Flanagin

Random me:  I am going to enjoy sharing these with all of you that read my blog.

 

100 Day Challenge – Random Acts Of Kindness

Note the semi-hidden hummingbird

Amazing Random Acts of Kindness. 

You are about to embark on an amazing journey through some heartfelt, thoughtful, creative and joyful random acts of kindness.  Each Act will be described by the challenge participant in their own words.  You will be able to feel the joy it brought to both the participant as well and the recipient.

Here is how it started:

On October 15, 2013 I stepped out of my comfort zone and gave myself a 100 Day Challenge. Each day for 100 days I asked a different person to do just one random act of kindness and then tell me about it. Simple enough, right? There were no rule, no expectations, just do something that would bring a smile to someone else.

I asked 16 men and 84 women if they would participate.  For the most part,  I asked only once and did very little follow-up or reminders.   The response was amazing.  I hope you enjoy following this blog to see what Random Acts of Kindness my family, friends and colleagues came up with.

To my surprise, many participants thanked me for including them in this challenge.  The THANK YOU goes to each one of you that took on your own challenge to make a difference.

THANK YOU for making the world a better place!

Today is the last day of this challenge, tomorrow the ripple effect begins. Enjoy! To view all 100 Random Acts click on the archive to the right of this post for January 2014, February 2014, March 2014 and April 2014.

If you would like to follow this journey, check back or subscribe over on the right column to receive email notifications.

Have a Flan-tastic Day and Scatter some Kindness,

Donna Flanagin

Random me:  I was not completely comfortable doing this challenge.  I  felt like I was imposing on their busy lives and didn’t want anyone to feel obligated.