Random Acts of Kindness.

A few years ago, I came across the phrase "simple random acts of kindess". I don't remember if it was in a book or on the Oprah show, but whatever it was, it inspired me...for a while. Not too long ago, I also saw a foreign news feature where people were encouraged to pass on the random act of kindness when they drove up to a Starbucks drive-through and were surprised to hear that the customer before them paid for their coffee already. After getting their free coffee, they did the same for the person next to them. It was a simple random act of kindness.

While I have always been a strong believer in the Golden Rule, or perhaps karma, doing simple random acts of kindness was not as easy as I thought it would be. Sure there was the occassional I'll-pick-it-up-since-you-dropped-it or whatnot, when I stop to think about it, I'm not so good at doing random acts of kindness. Maybe because I don't want to get involved in things I'm not involved in anyway, or perhaps I don't want to bother because I'm too busy. Sometimes I still shy away from being kind because I'm nahihiya.. Why should I put myself out there for people I don't know, right?

However, about two weeks ago, I surprised myself by doing something I don't often do. Indeed, it was a simple random act of kindness and it has been rewarded tenfold thus far.


It started so unceremoniously. Such a benign act, with nothing expected in return. I was just having a really great day, and I wanted to spread the positive energy around. While enjoying cocktails during a movie premiere, I spotted a couple of ladies trying to figure out how to take a photo of themselves. So, putting aside hiya, I approached an offered to take their photo. That was it, or so I thought.

Before the night ended, that random act of kindness began to be rewarded. To make a long story short, from there new friendships were born, new opportunities unfolded, and great things are beginning to happen. All because I opened myself up to a random act of kindness.