Day 1 -- Starting Again

I took six weeks off from recording any gestures of NICE. I didn't mean for it to go this long, but here it is six weeks later and I now I am ready to write again about NICE.

I was hoping that being NICE had become a habit. Every day I thought about being nice. Sometimes I planned what I'd do (invite a friend to a movie) or just let the nice happen spontaneously. I didn't want to write about it, I just wanted to do it, to have it become part of my life. But as the weeks went on, I found starting thinking less and less about nice. And after I started thinking about it less, I did it less.

II thought I'd start writing about my experiences again because of what happened today.

I was taking my daily walk and as I walked through the corner gas station, I noticed an elegant older woman filling her tank. I really loved the pants she was wearing and at first wasn't going to say anything, but then I thought I'd be NICE and tell her how lovely she looked.

I turned around and told her that I really liked her outfit and the pants were especially gorgeous and looked so good on her. Her face just lit up and she said: "Today is my birthday and I'm on my way to a lunch with friends, and you just gave me my first birthday gift!" And that made ME feel great....so....

Thirty Days of Nice (Redux)

Day 30 -- Where NICE Started

I "finished" my "thirty days of nice". Looking back at the things I did, big and small, I feel good. And I'm glad I have a record of it, for myself. I never feel like I do enough for others and often feel like a "bad" person. (It's a whole 'nother blog to deal with that), so it was great to write about handing out my daily gifts of nice. It's become a habit now and I will keep it up though won't write daily about it, not right now.

I was thinking about what inspired me and it was when a woman I'm acquainted with spoke about how she was frustrated with her 6-year-old son when because he wasn't doing his homework one night. He was preoccupied with something else, with what she thought was just goofing around, drawing pictures, and when she asked what he was up to, he told her he was creating little packets to give to the homeless people he had seen in the neighborhood! He put a dollar into a Baggie and included pictures he had drawn and a little note: "You are loved".... She was so amazed at his compassion and generosity and enjoyed seeing the reactions of the people he gave a Baggie to as they walked around the neighborhood with him the next day.

I thought, if a six-year-old can do this small act of kindness "done with great love" then I could and SHOULD as well. In whatever way I could manage. That's how I started...and what inspires me to continue.