Happy Mardi Gras too!

I'm going to attempt making Chicken a la Mer for dinner tonight to celebrate.

ETA: I have no plans to go anywhere today so it's gonna be hard to be kind to a random stranger. I guess cooking dinner for the two of us will have to do. I will also give the hens an extra cup of chicken crack (scratch grains) when I put them up for the night.

I didn't know about this until just now but I did do my usual act of kindness just a short time ago. When I go to the grocery and park my car, I look around for someone who is just about finished emptying their cart. Then I go up and offer to take it for them, saving them a trip to the cart corral. It's fun and people are always appreciative, especially the moms with small kids. It makes my day.

I, too, try to be kind every day. It just makes me happy.

Late to learning about this as well - better late than never 😀

And I get to be kind to children every day @ my job 🙂

I did my random act of kindness Monday- I was shopping and noticed that some jerk had left a shopping trolley right on the line dividing two nose-to-tail handicapped parking spots. It always irks me when peple leave trolleys in parking spots because that makes it impossible to get into the spaces. So I took the trolley away, and when I came out I saw that both spaces had been parked in.

A non-random, regular act was paying a visit to a friend who used to live on a farm near my town but a couple of years ago was badgered by family members to move to another, small rural town with few amenities and services, because the house where she was renting was not up to their frou frou standards. Her health is poor and has continued to deteriorate, making her virtually housebound as she cannot drive more than a short distance without being in great pain.

The family members who were so keen to move her into a ”better” house and promised to support her in her new home have pretty well abandoned her. 🤬 Her brother, who owns the house she is now in, does nothing to help her with her shopping or anything really. The town where my friend, who is on a small pension, lives has a small supermarket with limited range and high prices. Her brother and his wife regularly shop in a town an hour and a half away but when my friend asks if they could pick up one or two items she can’t get locally, the answer is always no. She found out on FaceBook that one of her sons and his wife spent Christmas at a beach house literally ten minutes away from her town. Not only did they not come to see her on Christmas Day or invite her to join them for a meal, they didn’t even call.

So I go up as often as I can (it’s 2 hours away from my place) to take her out to lunch and go down to the bigger, cheaper shopping centres an hour’s drive away. She is so glad to just get out of the house. And the grocery prices are significantly lower than in her town, a big thing when you’re on a pension.

When I go I always try to take her a pineapple (a fruit she loves and which simply isn’t available in her town), a roasted chicken from her favourite fast food place (also unavailable in her town), and other bits and pieces- a cake or a quiche I have baked, other fruit, Turkish delight etc. It’s mostly to let her know that I remember the things she loves and care enough to get them for her.

Today DH came with me as he’s a phone tech and we had purchased online on her behalf a new phone. We’ve been organising her cell phone for her for a few years after she struggled to use a really cheap and hard to operate android phone she had been given by her son and daughter in law. DH had some discarded iPhones at work and refurbished one and gave it to her. I find that iPhones are very user friendly and my friend did too. We replaced it with a newer model a few years ago but now as it comes to the end of its life we had to buy a professioinally refurbished fairly recent model as DH is now retired. We went up and DH set up the new phone and made sure all of her stuff on her old phone successfully made it over to the new phone.

It makes me so angry that her family treat her so poorly when I know that if they needed her to, she would rip the heart out of her chest without hesitation and hand it over asking if it was enough.

You are so good to help her. Would it be possible with your help and the help of other friends for her to move again, to a more walkable area and perhaps nearer to you? Maybe with public transportation so she would not have to drive. And, froufrou be danged, maybe a less expensive small apartment so she would have more of her pension to spend on other things.

I try. It always surprises me how some people seem so shocked.

Two incidences pop into my mind. While walking, I saw a woman trying to haul her various bags up the front steps. She was having a hard time. She wasn’t elderly but I don’t think she felt well. I saved her from having to do a second (or more) trip. She was so blown away.

I let a man get ahead of me in line at the market (If someone only has one or two items,why not?)…. it was crazy how many times he thanked me…it was nothing, I often do that.

It made me wonder if anyone ever did anything nice for either one of them.

The older recently widow lady across the street is so sweet. I get her mail and newspaper if I am out ( almost everyday) and put on her porch. I take her to grocery store and library. She doesn't drive any more, and her two sons ignore her. Grrrr.

Aldi has put me in the habit of catching people taking their cart back, and give them a quarter and take it in.

I began waving at everybody on our street, and now everyone waves at each other. I have made it a habit to always smile as I walk thru stores. It's funny that people always smile back and act surprised.

I dont consider myself looking like a little old lady yet, and I try to act perky. Maybe people are looking at me thinking "oh look at that little old lady" Oh well....

I love hearing these things. It makes me really happy. Colleen and ladypat, you are special people. I had an elderly neighbor, a friend, who had no family and I considered it a privilege to help her. We had been friends for over 20 years. Such a sweet woman. We had so many things in common.

ETA: I have no plans to go anywhere today so it's gonna be hard to be kind to a random stranger.

You can be kind to people online. Both by taking the time to answer their questions if you have some useful answers, or sometimes just by a bit of encouragement. For some people, especially the ill or the elderly with mobility issues, they too may not have been able to go outside and see anyone, one can still reach out and make their day brighter.

@lucille, I’d love to do that but unfortunately my friend does not do well living in close proximity to other people. Like many cats, she likes socialising but when she’s in a mood to socialise. Adding to the problem is a severe housing shortage here which, as well as meaning that any available rental has anywhere upwards of 100 applicants, rents are sky high.

Another issue we discovered when she moved is that changing health districts means you go to the bottom of the new district’s list for specialist appointments and non-emergency surgeries. She has a number of health issues and lost her place in the queues she was in when she moved to her new home. Moving away would send her back to the bottom again.

No random chance for me as of late, but today I ventured out to bring food and did some cleaning for someone in need.

Yesterday we pulled into a parking spot at an antique shop where a lady just pulled out of and we found her pocketbook on the ground. I picked it up as we watched her car pull around the corner and out of sight. It was full of cash and credit cards so we took it inside the shop to alert the owner and fortunately she knew the person as a regular customer. She immediately called the lady and left her a message about her pocketbook. I guess that was our good deed for the day?

A very good deed, vgkg. I have found a number of wallets and a purse in my day. I don't know why. But it is very satisfying to return them to their rightful owner. One time I had been in a restaurant with a friend (we drove separately) and when we came out, I saw a wallet on the ground. It had the man's license in it so I knew where he lived and my GPS took me to his house which wasn't terribly far away. It was late but I knew he would want it back right away so I knocked on his door. He was surprised and very grateful and wanted to pay me. I told him my mother would never allow that (I was in my 50's at the time and she had already passed) lol. But he insisted and told me to treat myself and my friend to dinner so I agreed to take it and I did just that.

well I'm a couple days late but this morning at my allergists office an older couple came in. That poor sweet lady was liberally almost bent in half. She sat down beside me and was struggling to get her big winter coat off. I asked if she needed help then I just got up and helped her. Her husband said thank you very much.

Had to make a return at Walmart. The lady in front of me was really giving the young customer service girl a hard time. She said ma'am please, I'm not trying to fight with you if you could please just calm down I'm trying. She had to go get a manager. When I got up to the counter I asked her if she was alright. She looked genuinely surprised I asked. She said I'm ok, thank you for asking and for being so patient.

I try my best to make every day a random act of kindness day? Try being the operative word here.

every day

To honor your perspective I invite eveyone to keep on posting your RAOKs. That may give some of us ideas for our own, ongoing, RAOKs.

I don't care for the phrase and what it may imply.

Striving to perform kind acts for others should be deliberate and ongoing. Not random.

The random part comes in because you never know when the opportunity will present itself.

I don't know that I succeeded today. My daughter is not feeling her best, so I suggested to her boyfriend that he come with me to pick her up at work, so he could snuggle her. That's the closest I came. He didn't actually go to pick her up, but he did say it was a good idea. I don't think I even got the door for anybody today? I sucked. I'll try to double up tomorrow.

I haven’t told anyone this before, being anonymous makes it easier to share. I was looking at Nextdoor app a while ago and a young woman was looking to rehome her obviously beloved cat. Someone asked why and she said because she is disabled and low income and her kitty had developed a disease that required a special diet and she just didn’t have the money to afford the diet food. So she was hoping to find someone who could provide a home and the special food he needed, so he could live. I thought that was too sad and asked if she could get the food, wou would she want to keep the kitty? If course she did.

I had a very expensive special needs kitty who died at 18 or 19 about 15 years ago and I decided I was getting to the age a pet might outlive me, so I never got another cat. I figured I could just pay for her to keep her kitty by paying for the food he needs instead of offering a home to him. So every month she lets me know when she needs food and I send her a virtual gift cerificate to PetSmart. We’ve never met.

I love this so much olychick!!! What a difference you are making in both their lives!!! That is wonderful.

FWIW, the 'random' part applies to the people on the receiving end not expecting it.

Carolb, well then what I described in my contribution above would be ‘random’ because the person did not expect when I came over with food and did cleaning for them. But my act on that day was not random because I knew they would always need help, and I chose to do so.

Regardless, I was happy I did.

" FWIW, the 'random' part applies to the people on the receiving end not expecting it. "

Few if any comments in this thread, including in the second paragraph of the first comment of the OP, uses the term in that sense. Including your earlier comment about being kind.

The term has become maybe even a cliché in popular usage, one that doesn't quite mean what users think it does. If the person on the giving-end endeavors to always be kind to others, an admirable trait, nothing about doing that is "random". Which is why I don't care for the term.

Potato potahto.

I just like the idea of being kind to others, always. Let it mean what ever you want. Who cares?

Special moment, special hour, special day, special year. Random, specific.🤷

Call it what you want. It doesn’t matter.

Be kind. It’s not hard.

It’s always good to have a day to celebrate these things that are done throughout the year.

Good post, Lucille.

Interesting thoughts about the definition of ’random acts of kindness’ by the last 4 posters - carolb, Palisades, Elmer & roxsolid. I agree with each. Especially that every person should endeavor to be kind as a part of how one conducts oneself. My thought is that we do need to be tuned in to our surroundings to be aware of situations we encounter when a bit of kindness from us would help another living being - whether that is a human being or an animal. I think too that acts of kindness are smaller scale acts. Larger actions we might take to help another living being likely are called heroism. I also agree that posts like this are nice because reading actions others have taken is inspiring and for me, reminds me to always be aware of the life going on around me so that I might see opportunities to offer a smaller kindness.

Well said, KW!

You are a gentle soul.

I think naming the day is a gentle reminder. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own world we stop noticing these things. It’s understandable…life can get rough sometimes.

I agree. Worrying about what it's called is neither here nor there. Concentrate on being kind, and helping when and where you can. It benefits the giver as well as the receiver. And yes, Lucille, great topic.

Oly. 💜💜💜💜

Having just dealt with a small dog now needing prescription food, I know the sticker shock. I am so grateful it isn't an issue for me. Bless you.

Just catching up with this thread. I am glad it is being continued. Oly you are amazing in the depth of your caring. You are wonderful the way you are, don't let the clouds that sometimes appear around here ever cloud your sunshine.

So sweet of you to say Lucillle. If you had any idea how little I care about that cloud or what is said...you wouldn't worry at all. My random act of kindness to the group should be to stop poking the bear! I'm working on it!