Last year, I was having a rough time around my birthday. I had an infection in my jaw causing me months of misery, constant headaches and sleeplessness. In my personal life, I was not being treated very kindly no matter what I did, and in my professional life, I was trying to make some progress but felt stuck in quicksand. I was down, feelin’ mighty low.
As my birthday rolled around, I remembered seeing something called “The Birthday Project,” a blog post about a woman who had planned 38 acts of kindness in honor of her 38th birthday. What better way to get my head right than to do kind things for other people? What better way to appreciate how fortunate I was than to find ways to be in service to strangers? You can check out The Birthday Project website here.
So, that’s what I did last year…I looked for all kinds of ways to do kindnesses for the people around me, 39 kind things for my 39th birthday. I did things like put the carts back in the cart corral at the grocery store, push my neighbors’ trash cans back in their driveway, and put quarters in gumball machines for kids to find. My favorite thing last year was buying a stranger’s breakfast at IHOP: with the help of my waitress, I was able to pick up the tab for someone dining alone and skedaddle before they found out I’d picked up the bill. It was positively thrilling to rush around performing these little kindnesses without getting caught. I didn’t want credit or thanks; the joy was in doing the nice things and scampering away. These acts of kindness made me smile. They made me forget my headache and sleeplessness, and I felt good for making a little difference in people’s lives. These little acts of service made my problems seem small and helped me get my perspective back.
This year, I’d like to enlist more people to do an act of kindness for someone in the first week of September, oh pretty please, and that’s where you come into the equation! I turn 40 on September 5th, and I’d love for my friends all around the world to do something, anything, this week for someone else in honor of my 40 year milestone. Put the shopping carts away. Leave flowers on your neighbor’s porch. Buy coffee for the person behind you at Starbuck’s. Tuck a nice note in a library book for a stranger to find. Take doughnuts to the fire station. Write a thank you note to a teacher or a nurse or someone who made your life better. Take your old towels and blankets to an animal shelter. You get the idea? Just do something nice, something little or something big. I can’t imagine a better birthday than knowing my friends all around the globe are spreading a little good cheer. If you do an act of kindness, I’d love to know what it is! Also, if you’re feeling extra ambitious, share this blog post with your friends on Facebook and Pinterest and let’s really celebrate my 40th birthday with a flood of giving to others!
Thank you in advance for sharing a little birthday goodness with me!