Mailbox Kindness
In the early days of the pandemic I was scrolling Facebook and came across a friend's post. You know the one, where they say comment below and I will send the first 10 people a random gift at some point this year? Yeah, it rarely happens, but I decided to post the same message on my feed and promised myself to follow through. I had 15 people comment. So that week I went to the bookstore and bought 15 of those tiny square books you see near the checkout. The one I chose was quotes from Mr. Rogers which were all about kindness, empathy and love.
I packaged them up and sent them to the friends who had commented. I never imagined how amazing the responses would be! In this age of text messages and emails we've forgotten how nice it is to receive something personal in the mail. Several of them have told me all these months (years!) later that they still have the book on their end table or nightstand and refer to it often when they need a little lift.
It's been a couple of years since that experiment and since then I've found a few books that I found inspiring. I bought several copies of each book and throughout the year I randomly sent them to friends who I thought would appreciate them. Again, the response is utter shock, surprise and gratefulness that I would take the time to not just think of them, but to send something that I thought might be interesting or helpful to them.
I'd encourage you to go out today and buy a package of note cards. Spend an hour writing notes to friends telling them you're thinking about them and how much you appreciate their friendship, and drop them in the mail. No gift required, unless you want to take that extra step. I promise you'll get just as much out of it as they will and in the process you'll make the world just a little more kind.