Category Archives: kindness

Dec 18

Light a Candle at Gratefulness.org

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I first learned about Light a Candle and the wonderful site Gratefulness.org when I read an article by Sascha Zuger called “How to make someone’s day… for $20 or less (or even nothing)” in the October 2, 2007 issue of Woman’s Day magazine. Gratefulness.org is a nonprofit organization and international Internet community dedicated to increasing a spirit of gratitude in our daily lives.

Perhaps the most beloved part of this site is the Light a Candle feature. Begun in 2001, 4 1/2 million candles have been lit representing over 200 countries. This powerful contemplative tool begins by inviting the participant to reflect before continuing. Then you can enter a message, your name and country and you click on the wick to light the candle. It burns virtually for 48 hours. One can also create a thematic group and invite friends to light a candle in the spirit of a particular person or cause.

Today I created a candle group for a fellow spiritual brother Dharmaja in the Sri Chinmoy Centre from San Diego, California. He has been hospital bound on the East Coast since a little over a year ago. His cheerfulness in the face of his current physical limitations is a beacon of light in itself and an example for all the hearts he continues to touch.

I do hope if you have never heard of this special place on the Web that you explore its offerings. There is also a wonderful collection of articles on the subject of gratitude and its immense value in our lives. The Light a Candle graphic will take you to Dharmaja’s group. Please join me in wishing him well in this very special way.

P.S. this candle group is one of my activities to try to share kindness moments from Dec. 17th – Acts of Kindness Day – until Christmas Day.

Dec 17

Acts of Kindness Day 12-17-07

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Acts of Kindness Bloggers Unite
Acts of Kindness Bloggers Unite
December 17th is Acts of Kindness Day at BloggersUnite – Bloggers Unite is part of blogcatalog, a social blog directory that lists blogs by topic.

They call their efforts “an initiative designed to harness the power of the blogosphere to make the world a better place. By challenging bloggers to blog about a particular social cause on a single day, a single voice can be joined with thousands of others to help make a real positive difference…”

I love the idea of committing random and in this case not so random acts of kindness. With this initiative, the idea is to have hundreds of people all over the world offering some moment of kindness and then blogging about it afterwards.

In the spirit of Laura Stockman, the 10-year old girl who is doing 25 things during the month of December in the spirit of the Christmas season, I want to try to do 9 things – the number of days between Dec. 17 and Dec. 25 – ideally one thing each day. Today will be day one instead of day only. I felt as if my ideas on only a couple of days notice were not sufficient enough to make a decent splash if I limited it just to Dec. 17th.

So what to do? This morning after I finished my daily session of prayer and meditation I was seized with excitement and anticipation in coming up with 9 acts of kindness instead of just one to do today. I jotted down the following brainstorm ideas:

  • Give a 50.00 gift card to the local supermarket I received as a holiday present from my union at work to a friend who recently lost his job and hasn’t started collecting unemployment yet. He said he has virtually no savings so I know he needs this supermarket gift card much more than I do.
  • Set up a candle group at Gratefulness.org/candles for a friend who has been confined to a hospital bed for over a year.
  • Bake gingerbread men and bring in for co-workers plus as a holiday gift for the chiropractor’s office when I go for an appt. on Friday.
  • Give away a seldom-offered coupon for the Christmas Tree Shop to someone with a large carriage of items who does not have the coupon from the newspaper.
  • Try to become a Santa elf for the post office and purchase gifts for someone who sent a letter to Santa through the local post office. Beanelf.org
  • Donate toys for a local Toys for Tots holiday gift drive. Cardi’s Furniture stores are accepting items.
  • Put a 20.00 bill instead of a single into a Salvation Army kettle outside the supermarket.
  • Pay somebody’s gas or drive-through order behind me in line.
  • Go visit the 91-year old gentleman I met while walking in the neighborhood on my lunch hour. *** I called his daughter today and he passed away Nov. 28th as well as her husband passing away today. This plan is now modified to me going to her house after work to pick up her late husband’s library materials to return them for her.***

Do you have any other ideas for me to do? I welcome all comments and suggestions and am feeling so inspired to try to extend the Acts of Kindness Day into a whole week!

Related: My blog post at the Sri Chinmoy Centre site about befriending the 91-year old neighbor to my workplace while out walking. A Friendly Reminder