My December calendar page quotes Hamilton Wright Mable, who says, "Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a CONSPIRACY OF LOVE." That conspiracy of love is everywhere in the month of December. Even the collision repair shop and the car rental place we visited yesterday are part of the "do something kind" campaigns that fill the month of December. Have you noticed any yet?
A friend of mine was at the Oil Kings game the other night when they had their "Teddy Bear Toss." Three minutes into the game, the Oil Kings scored, and over ten thousand teddy bears flew out of the stands onto the ice for kids' Christmas charities. (My friend's wedding ring went flying, too, and the kindness of people searching with him in the stands below brought it back to him. Note to Casey: you might want to get it properly sized!) There are similar activities all over the place if we just look for them.
On a much smaller scale, every year at work, the admin team at L'Arche pulls names for a simple little secret gift exchange at Christmas. It's not the gifts that are so much fun -- it's the opportunity to do something nice for someone in secret. But the exercise of being a "secret angel" in December then begs the question: if I enjoy it so much, why don't I do secret acts of kindness all year round? Occasionally, this space feels like a random act of kindness when I'm able to share a happy little story to try to make the world a better place for people who might stumble across my moodlings.
Random acts of kindness can occur any day of the year. I love this little video of Syed Muzamil Hasan Zaidi's 22nd birthday in Islamabad, Pakistan. He decided to mark the day with 22 acts of kindness. A brilliant idea -- we don't need to be given gifts on special days as much as we need to express gratitude for the gift of life. And we can do that by being secret or not-so-secret angels for others.
The end of his movie says, "Let us be Kind" because basically, we only have each other. Especially during this Advent and Christmas, let us be kind, and carry it forward too, keeping in mind that any angels worth their wings emphasize kindness no matter the season!
I write little notes and tuck them into library books:)
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