RAOKA: Kindness

I'm back! I had an incredible time in Arizona with my fabulous friends. I think someone needs to invent a teleportation machine so I can see them more often than once or twice a year. Get workin' on that, wouldja??

Unfortunately, I brought something back with me aside from great memories. A cold. I've been coughing like crazy and struggling to make it through the days. And since it's tough to take days off after coming back from vacation, I'm attempting to be a trooper, while not breathing near anybody. But I've been neglecting you all far too often lately!

So, I hadn't gotten around to my RAOKA post for the month. I apologize, it won't be as insightful, well-written, or detailed as my fellow RAOKA members. So I urge you to check out their wonderful blog posts about their months of Kicking Arse.

RAOKA Posts from the Team:
Lance from Jungle of Life
Lori from Jane Be Nimble
Dani from Positively Present
Brandi from Joy Rebel
Sami from Life, Laughs & Lemmings

Results
So I mentioned that I wanted to make a list of ten good deeds. I didn't actually write out a list, but I had certain things in my head that I wanted to do this month to push myself to be kinder. I'll just mention a few here to give you an idea. I sort of feel weird about sharing things I've done. I hope I don't sound like I'm patting myself on the back! Not my intention!

Anyway, the internet is an amazing place, right? I have "met" so many people that I feel like I know, even though we've only exchanged emails here and there. Well, one of my internet friends was hurting, and hurting bad. I felt so much empathy each time I saw her Tweet about her pain. I wanted to cheer her up, but I felt like an email wouldn't be enough. So I decided to send her flowers. It's a simple gesture, I know. But I wanted her to know that I was thinking about her, and even though I couldn't give her a hug in person, she was in my heart. Be kind to your friends!

Okay, then one day I was walking into work. I saw a section of newspaper on the ground, as if someone was finished and just discarded it on the sidewalk. I thought about RAOKA and decided it might be a good idea to pick it up and dispose of it properly. I went and grabbed the stack and started heading to the nearest trash can. Then I stopped. The recycle can was behind me at the corner. I knew the right thing to do would be to backtrack and recycle that paper. So I did. Be kind to the earth!

And then one thing that I've always wanted to try was paying for the person behind me at Starbucks. I've heard so many stories about people doing this, and c'mon, being the Starbucks lover that I am, it'd be the perfect act of kindness. So as I was waiting in the drive thru, I peeked at the woman behind me, and decided it was the day. I got to the window, paid for the order with my Starbucks card, and when the barista handed it back, I said, "Actually, could I pay for the car behind me too?" This confused her. She stared at the register for a bit, then asked a coworker to help her out.

"She wants to pay for the car behind her," I heard her tell the other girl. They both looked confused.

"You want to just use your discount card for them?" one of them asked. I told them that I wanted to pay for the order. They turned back to the register, trying to figure this out. "Do you know what they ordered?" the girl asked? So I explained that I didn't know the person, I was just trying to do something nice. At this point, the line in the drive thru was getting pretty long and I was wondering if maybe my good deed was annoying some other folks! The girls finally realized what I was trying to do and ran the order through, saying how nice it was. This entire situation made me think paying for the person behind you wasn't as common as I'd like to have hoped! I just hope the woman enjoyed her coffee!

So anyway, there were a few more little things. I tried to be a bit more conscious (and a bit less lazy) about my kind acts for the month. And you know what? It was a lot of fun! I realized that every kind act I performed put a smile on my own face, and I thought, "I should do this more often. :)

November Theme: Beauty
Stay tuned next month for a post regarding this particular RAOKA theme!

And if you're interested in getting involved with RAOKA, there's some great info at the bottom of Sami's post.