Whether you have been on the journey with me this month or are hearing about it for the first time right now, I am completing 31 random acts of kindness for the 31 days of October in a challenge called #AdamsActs. To learn more about why the challenge started, check out the full story here, and if you’re interested in following my journey from the beginning, you can get a better picture of that from the article I wrote to begin the month. That article is right here. Whether or not you’ve been keeping up on my acts, here is my week 4 update. I hope this can provide some encouragement for you to participate in spreading kindness instead of the coronavirus.
Day 19: I took time to call an old friend. Instead of being super quick to make our plans for next week and quickly move on to the next thing, I intentionally set aside time to have a real conversation with her.
Thoughts on Day 19: I have learned that Mondays are the busiest day of my week, so taking yet more time out of my Monday’s to talk to someone when my to-do list is a mile long is hard, but I could see that when I made this old friend a priority, her face lit up and she felt valued. Seeing how my kindness could do that made the time well spent.
Day 20: I was able to help a close friend clean up the miscellaneous snacks after she invited me to (socially distance) watch the Bachelorette with her. I also reached out to a close friend of mine to check in with her on her drive back to college after her grandma’s funeral.
Day 21: I offered to drive my sister to soccer practice so my parents didn’t have to get up and leave.
Thoughts on Day 21: This feels really small, but my week had been crazy busy up to this point and taking the few spare minutes I had to offer help to my parents was just about all I could give, but giving it was an act of kindness. I was glad to be able to give what I could. After all, kindness doesn’t need to be huge, it’s taking what you can give and giving it to someone else.
Day 22: Another crazy busy day but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t room for kindness. I offered to order pizza for my family for dinner and then I offered to go and pick it up as well.
Day 23: Today I did something very different; in place of completing my #AdamsAct as an act of kindness for someone else, I took today to dedicate that kindness to myself. I let myself sleep in (and not feel bad about it) and then take a slow morning to ease into the day.
Thoughts on Day 23: Like I’ve mentioned before, I have been crazy busy and for the next few weeks, there is no indication that my life is slowing down. Taking some time on Friday morning to let myself get some extra sleep and start my day by relaxing before a busy weekend of homework and training was a kindness I don’t often allow myself. But just like many other kindness acts that have been teaching me lessons, this taught me another huge one; when we dedicate ourselves to being kind, we cannot exclude ourselves from the statement. Kindness to others is great, but when we take time to show that same kindness to ourselves we are truly embracing what kindness is all about.
Day 24: In between 12+ hours of crisis hotline training, I made time to make cookies and caramel apple cider for my sister and her friends to enjoy for their early quarantine Halloween celebration.
Day 25: In between several hours of training, I took time to reach out to a friend who has had a really hard week to check in.
As I’m approaching the end of October, #AdamsActs is coming to an end. But there is still time left! With a little less than a week left, I encourage you to join me. If the whole month felt like too big of a commitment, try it for this last week. You don’t need tons of time to be kind, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to be kind, you just need to have the desire to make some else’s day a little bit brighter. There is no time like the present, give it a try now, you never know, trying to show someone else kindness might just bring a bright spot to your day as well.