A legacy of kindness that lives on.

A dear friend of mine is in Hospice, and she sent out the loveliest of emails to her friends/family a couple of weeks ago. She told us her birthday was just around the corner and that she had a special request. She asked us to please not send her cards or gifts, but instead to do something kind for someone else and let her know what we did. Wow - what a brilliant idea.

That email request went to about 30ish people and she told us that she's been blown away by the stories of kindness and paying it forward that have been shared with her. She said that she put the request out at first mainly because she wasn't in the mood for birthday celebrations (understandably)... and then it turned into something that brought her more happiness than she could have imagined.

She shared that her brother has a community garden and he shared some lovely produce with the local food bank AND will continue to do that every year!  So wonderful and thoughtful.

For my part, I remembered that she has a big heart for Kenya and so I googled "trustworthy Kenyen charities for women and girls" ... and what happened next was pretty magical. I found a foundation that serves young girls in a slum in Nairobi and bought one of the girls a soccer uniform. When my friend heard that, she got so excited - and told me that she had visited a slum and felt led to give them a couple of soccer balls! Can you believe that? I did NOT know that she visited a slum, nor that she had left the girls soccer balls. But I felt easily led to this charity and to go with the soccer uniform. Gosh we laughed, cried and shared joy over that.   I also told her that I was so inspired by her idea that I will be putting the same request out on my birthdays from now on.

There were many other stories of kindness, small and large. Each one felt good to her! And I'm sure that each one felt good to the giver and receiver. And that's what I call a real win-win-win.

Thank you my friend. Love and gratefulness forever.
...Lee
PS: I asked her permission to share this here and she said she'd be honoured. In her own words: "Maybe this is an idea that will go viral for everybody on their birthdays and the world will just be so full of “random acts of kindness” that peace will follow."  Isn't that just the best vision?

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