Friday, 26 July 2013

Random Acts of Kindness.

Random acts of kindness.

That sounds pretty nice. I have heard of people going into a toy store and paying for someone’s toy that is on lay-a-way at Christmas time. If it is on lay-a-way, then you can be pretty sure that the person could use a hand with the finances. Nice thing to do. There are many other ways to do random acts of kindness; you can compliment someone’s outfit, hair, shoes or really anything. Who doesn’t like a compliment? I hold doors for people and try to give them smiles whenever possible. Like I said, there are many ways to do a kindness.
 A cup of coffee is poured at a Tim Hortons coffee shop in Toronto on May 14, 2010. Staff at a downtown Edmonton Tim Hortons were having an ordinary day Monday until a young man in his mid-to-late 20s walked in, ordered a large double-double and a Boston cream doughnut, and posed a question.
The last few days in Calgary, there have been three or four anonymous people who have bought the next five hundred coffees at certain Tim Horton’s locations around the city. My wife tells me that often people will buy the coffee for the next person in line at the drive through. This is the first time I have heard it done on such a large scale. A free coffee won`t change your life or solve your problems, but it will make your day. It is a good thing.

I can`t help but think that the eight or nine hundred dollars could be put to better use. I`m not saying that the people who use the drive thru at Tim`s are all rich, but they have money enough for a coffee and are more than likely on the way to work. There are food banks that $800 would help to keep running for a week or so. The Salvation Army could buy some more of those survival kits that they gave out a month ago to the flood victims in Calgary and southern Alberta. It wouldn`t be so random, but it would be an act of kindness.

Yes, I would love to get a free coffee. It would start my day off very nicely. Who knows where that act of kindness will end up? It might end with someone opening a door and giving a smile to a perfect stranger. It might inspire someone to buy a toy or two at Christmas. It might give someone an idea of how to help the homeless. I suppose that you just never know where it will all end. Perhaps the 500 cups of coffee was inspired by someone else buying that anonymous person a coffee for no other reason than they thought it would be a nice thing to do.

You can`t see me, but I am giving you a smile and I encourage you to come up with your own version of a random act of kindness.
 


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