Random Acts of Kindness

I love the concept of “random acts of kindness” – doing something for someone you may or may not know and doing so for no other reason than to share an act of kindness.  Random acts of kindness or “raks” as they are known, have become popular over the past few years. Even a small gesture of kindness counts as a rak.  This is a win-win situation, as both the person receiving and the person doing the random act of kindness experience enjoyment and satisfaction.

Here in Prince Albert, I know of a group of high school girls who make it their mission to perform at least one random act of kindness each and every day.  What makes this so unique is that these girls come from less than ideal homes, in fact some of the girls are foster children.  These young women have seen much sorrow and suffered  painful childhoods, yet they do not dwell on their past experiences and instead focus on doing good things for other people.  The girls say that their daily ritual of raks has helped them to heal and to work on recovery and that they feel happier and more content with their lives for doing so. 

I have a friend who decided to perform “racks” or random acts of Christmas kindness this year.  She surprised people who had touched her life or people she thought might need an act of kindness to help them through the Christmas season.  She found that she enjoyed doing her racks as much as her recipients enjoyed receiving them.

I was a rack recipient this Christmas.  I received a card with a very touching message and a Tim Horton’s gift card from an anonymous rack-er.  I suspect it is my friend, mentioned above, but she would neither confirm nor deny when I questioned her.  Regardless of who it was, it was a wonderful gesture and made my day in the middle of Christmas madness. 

Last week, my niece Jeridee told me her own story of a rak in her life.  Her story is a wonderful one and I think it is one of the most touching rak stories I have heard to date.  Her two year old daughter loves to watch the local school bus drive by their acreage and to wave at it as it goes by. Every day Jeridee tries to make sure Maelle is by the living room window around bus time so she can wave at the bus.  At some point, the driver took notice of this practice and began to wave back. Last week, the driver took it one step further. She now slows down a little when she gets to Maelle’s window and everyone on the bus waves to her.  How nice is that!  Such a small gesture, yet it makes one little girl (and her mother and great-aunt) very happy.  No doubt, it also puts the bus driver and the students on the bus in a happy mood.  What an awesome bus driver and what a great lesson she is teaching the students on her bus. This just makes me smile. :)How wonderful for Maelle. 

Random acts of kindness can be the simplest actions, yet they have a huge impact.  So, go ahead and make someone’s day (and your own) by rak-ing them.  You will be amazed at how good you feel about yourself and about those around you. Making the world a happier place, one random act of kindess at a time . . .  it's a good thing!