“My goal is to, at least once a week, practice a Random Act of Kindness. (R.A.K.) One that will put a smile on someone’s face or make their day a little brighter.”

So last week didn’t quite go as smooth as I thought it would….but I give myself an A for effort. This week’s goal was to call the manager of an establishment and commend them for their excellent customer service. I was beginning to think I needed to get a back up plan, as I really hadn’t been anywhere that woed me with the above and beyond factor. Then I went grocery shopping last night, and I was woed. This place has always provided good customer service, and it seems like  every time I go there they have stepped it up even more. Last night being no exception. After last weeks experience I decided not to call until today, after I had ran my errands and was home for day.
Once I was settled in and had all my “chores” done I sat down, started playing around on the computer and made my call. I don’t know who was happier when we hung up the phone, the manager or myself. She was caught completely off guard and I could tell by her reaction, it made her day a little brighter. («R.A.K.) Mission accomplished! 1+ Now I get on the computer and go in to a “discussion forum” I have been visiting these past few days. I have such strong thoughts and feelings about this and it’s interesting to see other peoples point of view. Because of the nature of the topic, and there are few known “facts” all you can really do is voice your opinions, thoughts, etc… It gets intense at times, but you just learn to agree to disagree….usually. Today somebody made a statement that completely crossed the line and offended many people. This “discussion” has now turned into a war of the words. I, giving this person the benefit of the doubt, explained that while she probably meant ……., the way it was worded came across as……. and that’s why people were so offended. («R.A.K.) 1=2 That didn’t quite turn out as I had hoped. Her response, “Shut the hell up you moron.” I guess the right thing to do  would have been to be the bigger person and let it go. Of course I had to remind her who the moron was. («cancels out R.A.K.) -1 (again, sorry mom!) Final count =1
Two steps forward-one step back, but I’m trying

….well plus the last seven = fourteen

Touching Inspiring Heartfelt

Logan is a 13 year-old boy who lives on a ranch in a very small town in Nebraska. This is a recording of a phone call he made to a Houston Christian Radio station. His words have wisdom far beyond his years….

I believe that friends are quiet angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.
Author Unknown

The only way to have a friend is to be one.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.
A. A. Milne

Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.
Albert Camus

Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some people move our souls to dance. They awaken us to new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom. Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and  we are never ever the same.
Flavia Weed

If you’re alone, I’ll be your shadow.  If you want to cry, I’ll be your shoulder.  If you want a hug, I’ll be your pillow.  If you need to be happy, I’ll be your smile.  But anytime you need a friend, I’ll just be me.
Author Unknown

Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.
Eleanor Roosevelt

We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we’re not alone.
Orson Welles

Friends are kisses blown to us by angels.
Author Unknown

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
Anaïs Nin

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust

A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart.
Author Unknown

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Martin Luther King, jr.

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
Aristotle

A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.
Author Unknown

No love, no friendship, can cross the path of our destiny without leaving some mark on it forever.
Francois Mocuriac

To find a friend one must close one eye; To keep him, two.
Norman Douglas

We are each of us angels with only one wing, to fly we need only embrace each other.
Luciano De Creschenzo

A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.
Bernard Meltzer

Friendship with oneself is all important because without it one cannot be friends with anybody else in the world.
Eleanor Roosevelt

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.
Elizabeth Foley

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.
Albert Schweitzer

Updated June 27, 2009

Friends are the most important part of your life. Treasure the tears, treasure the laughter, but most importantly, treasure the memories.
Dave Brenner

Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.
Octavia Butler

A person, who no matter how desperate the situation, gives others hope, is a true leader.
Daisaku Ikeda

Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.
Helen Keller

Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light.
Norman B. Rice

If you have a favorite Quote you would like to share, email it to me at: whatsleftofmyhead@yahoo.com

It seems like just yesterday I was arranging Dinosaur tails, attaching Batman capes and painting little Vampire faces. Watching them run door to door anticipating what their next ‘treat’ would be. Coming home, proudly showing off what they got, who they got it from, and in what order it be will eaten. They picked 1 piece of candy to eat before bath time and then would settle in for the night in their nice cozy jammies.
Precious angels!

Dad- you think they’re asleep yet?
Me- we should really give it a good half hour
Dad- was there alot of Snickers?
Me- I think so, did you see Reeces or Almond Joy’s?
Dad- yeah, lets eat
Me- hand me the Starbursts too please

As they grew through the years, so did their suspicions. They checked their stashes nightly, then again in the morning.

Me- think they’re asleep yet?
Dad- give it another half hour or so
Me- any idea where they hid it?
Dad- no, but I think the Snickers are all gone
Me- the Reeces and Almond Joys too?
Dad- even the Starbursts
Me- did you check their closets?
Dad- under the beds too
Me- good night
Dad- night…maybe you can look again while they’re at school tomorrow
Me- I will

Eventually they became too cool to dress up or go Trick or Treating. It was for “kids” and they were having nothing to do with it. They laughed at the fact that, even at my age, I loved dressing up and going to Halloween parties.

Fast forward a few years, now that they are in their 20′s….it’s kinda cool to get a costume together (again)….to dress up (again) and go to Halloween parties….even at their age! Funny how that works, huh?

This was one of my favorite costumes….

Happy Halloween!!

You know those days when it seems like everything that could go wrong, does…. those days you find yourself wondering why you even bothered getting out of bed…those days you begin questioning your own sanity? Me too, often. Today I spent my morning doing things around the house. I cleaned a bit, did the dishes, washed some laundry. I sat out on the patio and read for awhile then came in to finish some computer work. So far so good! Now I need to get ready to run a few errands…this is usually when all hell breaks loose. While some find it amusing….others, well not so much.  It’s as if I become possessed by the demons of punctuality. Whether it be an unexpected guest/repairman, a last minute wardrobe malfunction, allowing myself to become distracted, or misplacing something, (thank God my kids are grown) I am late for everything! There are three things I will not leave home without; my cell phone, my keys and my sunglasses. As I prepare to leave,
cell phone
keys
sunglasses….damn.
I have ultra sensitive eyes and without my glasses, will melt like the witches of Oz the moment the sun hits them. Once again I was late to my destination, but I did find my sunglasses…eventually!

*guess what? I saw Tim McGraw today walking out of Longs Drugstore with a 12 pack of Miller Lite. He looked me square in the eye and said, “Hi, how are you?” I swear! I think! I’m almost sure! chances are? …it REALLY did look like him! (hey, at least it wasn’t Elvis!)

As I stated in my previous post, “My new goal is to, at least once a week, practice a Random Act of Kindness. (R.A.K.) One that will put a smile on someone’s face or make their day a little brighter” I continued by saying, “I’m going to start today by paying a complete stranger a compliment.”
My intentions were good, really.
I was eager to start my afternoon, looking forward to accomplishing my goal and adding a ray of sunshine to someones day. My first stop was the gas station (getting gas, by the way is one of my biggest pet peeves) With a bargain price of $2.97 a gallon, I decided to stop at the first gas station I came to. It was hot outside, there were cars at every pump and I, of course ended up sandwiched in the slowest line. My patience were being tested but I just looked at everyone with the biggest damn smile you’ve ever seen. It was finally my turn, I took my wad of cash and went inside to pay. As I walked in, I see a familiar, middle aged man working behind the counter,

FMAM: Hi, how are you today? (smiling)
Me: Good, it’s always nice to see your smiling face! («compliment!)
FMAM: You’re looking nice and cool, very refreshed.
Me: It is hot outside, but I like it….I’m enjoying the last of warm days.
FMAM: You should have worn shorts.
Me: (hmmm…) Yeah, well….it’s not that bad.

We finish our transaction,

Me: Thank you so much, have a great day!
FMAM: Thank you, see you soon?
Me: Sure
FMAM: Oh and hey….
Me: Yeah?
FMAM: Next time I’d really like to see you in shorts. («dog)
Me: Ba-bye

So, that didn’t go quite as planned.
Perhaps I need to practice.
Later in the day I noticed an ice cream man (or as I used to tell my kids, the music man) pass a group of kids who were trying to wave him down. (I guess their parents don’t know the music man trick yet) I had just gotten in my car, so I safely caught up to him, got his attention and pointed back to the kids. He gave me the thank you nod and headed back in their direction. I was thinking on the way home that this could qualify as a random act of kindness! Just as I go to give myself a pat on the back, the car next to me decides to change lanes, into my lane. After giving a quick honk, I looked over and mouthed a four letter word at him…maybe two!

So, by the time I reach home I have at least decided that my first attempt, at the gas station had taken a strange twist and didn’t really count. But chasing down the ice cream man was a random act of kindness.
Now I’m confused, did my mouthing a four letter word (or 2) to my fellow driver now cancel that out? I’m pretty much back where I started yesterday…Huh? I guess there’s always tomorrow, I’m trying!!!

How often do you practice random acts of kindness? I know I shave my legs before going to the doctor, stop and allow pedestrians to cross in parking lots, avoid littering and will occasionally call a friend just to let them know they’re on my mind. But really, do these things have that much of an impact on others or does it just make me feel better? My new goal is to, at least once a week, practice a random act of kindness. One that will put a smile on someone’s face or make their day a little brighter. Chances are they will one day ‘pay it forward.’ I’m going to start today by paying a complete stranger a compliment, *click here for update*
remember;

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.
Phyllis Diller

If there is any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not deter or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.
William Penn

Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.
André Gide

How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it.
Author Unknown

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
The Dalai Lama

We do not remember days, we remember moments.
Casare Pavese

Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.
Swami Sivanada

As you go about your day, why not pick up the trash you find on the sidewalk?

The purpose of life is a life of purpose.
Robert Byrne

Do every act of your life as if it were your last.
Marcus Aurelius

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
George Bernard Shaw

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.
Herman Melville

Compassion is an alternate perception.
M.C. Richards

Give another driver your parking spot.

Love is not getting, but giving. Not a wild dream of pleasure and a madness of desire–oh, no–love is not that! It is goodness and honor and peace and pure living–yes, love is that and it is the best thing in the world and the thing that lives the longest.
Henry Van Dyke

What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen.
Henry David Thoreau

Living the truth in your heart without compromise brings kindness into the world. Attempts at kindness that compromise your heart cause only sadness.
Anonymous 18th century monk

What you deny to others will be denied to you, for the plain reason that you are always legislating for yourself; all your words and actions define the world you want to live in.
Thaddeus Golas

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
Theodore Isaac Rubin

Spend a week just being aware of things in nature that befriend you!

To receive everything, one must open one’s hands and give.
Taisen Deshimaru

Updated Oct. 31, 2008

Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.
Deciderius Erasmus

The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.
Joanna Macy

The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.
Joan Borysenko

Write a note to the boss of someone who has helped you, thanking him or her for having such a great employee.

Each small task of everyday life is part of the total harmony of the universe.
St. Theresa of Lisieux

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
Mother Teresa

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow – perhaps it all will.
Albert Einstein

Give another driver your parking spot.

Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolutions.
Kahlil Gibran

The best portions of a good man’s life. His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.
William Wordsworth

Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day.
Sally Koch

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
Mark Twain

Updated June 22, 2008

Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
Warren Buffett

3 things in human life are important. The 1st is to be kind. The 2nd is to be kind. & the 3rd is to be kind.
Henry James

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
Edith Wharton

A simple “hello”, a genuine smile, or compassionate glance, can all have such beautiful effects of which we’ll never really be aware.
A. Hall

By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.
Rabindrath Tagore

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
Thich Nhat Hanh

Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light.
Norman B. Rice

If you have a favorite Quote you would like to share, email it to me at: whatsleftofmyhead@yahoo.com