At first glance, The Simple Year 3 which is documenting a year of living kindly, seems a bit of a non-sequitor (some other bloggers words, not ours). I mean, performing kind acts are nice and all but how exactly does that count as a Simple Living project?
Stay with us here.
We propose that kind acts, some tiny, some larger, but all with good intent will actually force out the clutter that resides in our minds and simplify our lives. The Simple Year Three is Kim’ brainchild and germinated from a spontaneous act of kindness that rippled into something larger.
Here is her story:
“I was inspired to go down this path because of a recent incident in our neighborhood. A young man, only 14, committed suicide at our local park. We are a close knit community and the park is a central place where families gather to play, picnic and generally enjoy the beauty of Colorado. The suicide was like a big, black blight that I couldn’t look away from. It moved me deeply though I did not know the family or the young man. I wanted to help – but didn’t know what I could do to make a difference. I was just one person and not even intimately connected with the family. I felt a heart call but did not know how I would, or could, answer it.
The day after the suicide, I was driving home from dropping my daughter at daycare when I happened to see a woman walking down the sidewalk, wrapped in a blanket. There were tears running down her face and the sadness coming off her was palpable. At that moment, I knew this was THE MOM, and that I HAD to talk to her. I stopped and spoke with her for 45 minutes. I mostly listened and tried to carry away some of her pain. I was deeply moved by the experience and wrote a blog post about it – which I posted on the Facebook page our neighborhood had set up for the family.
Immediately, I began to get comments. People were moved and shared the post with their friends and family. Out of towners wanted to help, give money and support the family. A Mom in NY wrote to tell me that because of the blog post, she had a long conversation with her son about suicide. At that point, I began to realize there was power in kindness – particularly what I’ve dubbed “conscious kindness” – which is really paying attention in the moment and stepping outside your comfort zone to take action.”
So for the Simple Year 3, Kim approached us with the idea that kindness could not only connect, but simplify.
Now the first and second year Simple Year bloggers, Kerry and Kandice are going to join her and contribute their stories. All three of us lead typical busy lives with work, family and too many extracurricular goings on. We are hoping that simple kindness’ will actually simplify and enrich our lives as well as the lives of those around us, not just give us something to add to our “To Do” list.
You are rolling your eyes, aren’t you? Sound strange? Well, join us this year, if nothing else, it should be entertaining
If you have a kind act that moved you in some way or some discussion to add to our theory that kindness we would love to hear from you. Send us a note.
I have always tried to teach my kids about random acts of kindness. Mostly, we have done these random acts of kindness together. For example, one year we were driving home from a vacation. When we got off of an exit, we saw three young hitchhikers with a dog. My kids being animal lovers, insisted that we stop somewhere to get the dog some food. We ended up with two grocery bags of food for the dog and the three young people. We had to search for them on our way back because the police had made them move. We found them at the gas station and they shared their story with us. Another time, an older lady had rode the bus from the senior center where she was living, to get some groceries. She was in front of us at the checkout line and had forgotten her money so we paid for her groceries. Most recently, I had two boxes and two brown paper grocery bags full of some of my sons clothes that he had outgrown. They had been in the back of my car for a couple weeks. I always like to give my children’s clothing to someone who is in need and would most likely not be able to afford extra clothing for their children. I had been struggling with what to do with my son’s clothes because I did not know of a needy family with a boy my son’s size. Then one afternoon last week, I was walking into Walmart and noticed a man with two boys and three girls waiting at the bus stop. The two boys looked to be the size of the clothes that I had. So I stopped and asked him if he would like them. They were riding the bus home and were not able to take the clothes but he gave me the address where he lived. It took all of the courage I had to drive into his neighborhood, where frequent gang activity and shootings were happening. I was all by myself in a neighborhood where I looked very out of place. I made four trips from my car taking the clothing to the front porch where he asked me to leave them. And I prayed that all of the people that were on their porches watching me would not steal the clothing that I had left for them. I told my children about this story, not because I was bragging about doing something good for someone who was less fortunate than us, but because it is important for them to remember that we can do good things for other people. And they do not have to be grand gestures. Those boys got new school clothes that they otherwise may have never gotten and I bet that made their day. I know that it made their dads day because he called me three times to thank me.