Random Acts of Kindness (RAK)

With Indonesia burning on one side and the heated debate on the other side about causes and consequences of terrorism vs right-wing extremist thinking and about why some attacks receive more attention than others (and antibiotic resistance bacteria and so many toxic wastes from various industries in various parts of the world killing thousands and thousands all the time and world trade rules blocking good solar energy projects that could help to save this world from worse climate change catastrophe while  fracking contaminates drinking water) I realised how I was again about to get carried away by the news articles that were being shared in the social media, about to lose focus in what is happening around me in my life right now when just reading news from my phone and becoming sad and worried and angry.  And how, even though it is so very important to understand – to really understand what is happening in the world and where and why – the best thing I can do concretely for better world, right now, right here, is to give my attention to people right here around me. So somehow from this disturbance and from these uncategorised thoughts and from the pre-Christmas time of year I found myself on ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ –websites – especially looking for Random Acts of Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar. This time last year I had just discovered Ann Voskamp’s One thousand gifts –book, and modified our advent calendar from being something where you get something (a sweet, a pen, a sticker etc) every day before Christmas to be something where you write every day three gifts that you already have and that you are thankful for. I really liked that idea and continued to list the gifts that I have – almost 700 gifts already listed. This year I wanted to continue the tradition of an advent calendar where you don’t ‘get’ anything but that will very much bring joy and excitement to the days before Christmas. So today after work, instead of reading and sharing facebook-linked news articles and Instagram images, I spent the evening listening Christmas songs and creating our very first Random Acts of Kindness advent calendar with children helping & excited. 

​List of 52 Random Acts of Kindness will be printed and placed in our kitchen for next year’s activity. Nothing like these lovely printables! As I’m exploring these sites, I learn also how the community practicing these RAKs encourage people to do them in memory of lives lost in various tragedies  - one act of kindness for each life lost. I can sense that this is something I want to get into and I want to get our kids into it, too!