My Kind Valentine
Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy International Random Act of Kindness Week! I've planned to combine the two and, being joined by my helpful nephew Callum, I have all the ingredients for the sweetest Valentine’s Day ever! I’ve been planning this ever since my Random Act of Christmas Kindness. One of my favourite kindness acts so far, I loved choosing what to put inside my festive goodie bags and it gave me such pleasure leaving them on car windscreens at my doctor’s surgery. But most of all I was incredibly moved by a response I received from a lovely lady who received one of these bags.
Earlier this morning, Callum and I spread our loot across my bed and then had fun packing 20 kindness goodie bags. Into each clear bag we popped: a red foil-wrapped chocolate heart, a mini packet of Love Heart sweeties, a mini chocolate bar, a highlighter pen, some heart stickers, a handful of heart-shaped jewels, and a feather or two. We wrote kindness messages on my Kindness Cards. Callum carefully wrote "You are amazing!" and added his name and age on a few. We also included a "You Are Loved" card I’d made using one of my favorite nature photos I took last year, with a little explanation about our Random Act of Kindness on the reverse.
Excited and ready for action, we drove down to the City Hospital and parked. Although it was freezing, our hearts were warmed as together we placed our kindness bags on the car windscreens. We even had the chance to give one of our kindness bags face-to-face! We spotted a lady heading into the hospital and ran across to hand-deliver a goodie bag. She seemed really happy to receive it. We hope that when the owners returned to their cars after their appointment or visit or work-shift, they will be surprised. And we really hope our little act of kindness will make a few people smile and feel happy, especially on this love-filled day.
Last week, I told the Nottingham Post about our little Valentine’s adventure. We were interviewed and snapped by our city’s newspaper while in the midst of our good deed. Here's the link to the feature: http://www.nottinghampost.com/Helen-spreads-kindness-fights-fatigue-condition/story-28733502-detail/story.html
We then celebrated with a trip to our local Costa for a well-deserved sugar-loaded treat! What really warms my heart is that Callum wants to take a kindness goodie bag with him into school next week for his ‘show and tell’. My heart is so happy to think that this small act of kindness may help inspire this younger generation to continue the ripple effect of kindness. What a brilliant way to celebrate the start of International Random Act of Kindness Week! My happy for today is being kind by leaving love-filled goodie bags on car windscreens in the hospital car park.