Today is random acts of kindness day. But is an act of kindness ever really random? Are the acts of a friend bringing your favourite treat or sending a well timed text not the very opposite of random? Perhaps they have seemingly come out of the blue but are they not, in fact, consciously considered acts of kindness, and isn’t that what makes them all the more marvellous and meaningful?
Timehop can be a nightmare for me at this time of year.
In his defence, Abe has never been quite so harsh on his trips down memory lane. But his reminders do take me back to a place I'm not always emotionally ready for as I scroll through on my morning commute.
But with these recollections come nuggets of true kindness.
On the 26th January 2012, around the time I took compassionate leave from work to spend precious moments with my dad, I returned home from the hospice to this act of kindness.
A beautifully wrapped notebook to write down my thoughts and feelings, and a bag of Haribo (just because)
They say you find out who your friends are when times are hard. Only a month after delivering the notebook and Haribo, Katie was about to embark on a year of travelling in Thailand and Australia. You really do find out who your friends are when they use their leaving party to raise funds for the hospice that has become your home from home.
Meanwhile, whilst I was on leave there were other acts of kindness going on behind the scenes. I was asked to pop in to work because they had a surprise for me. My colleagues were busy having dress down Fridays and collections to raise yet more vital funds for the hospice. I was clueless to their fundraising endeavours. Working in a call centre, almost every week was a dress down Friday if they met their targets, so the fact they were willing to make the small but significant gesture of donating £1 to wear their jeans meant the world to me.
And isn't that the point of a random act of kindness? It's small. It's something most people can do to make a big difference to someone else's life. I may debate the random element of it but I wholeheartedly endorse it's impact.
It's been four years and I am still touched and thankful for people's kindness at a time that I needed it most.
And even today there are no words to express my gratitude to friends that stand with me collecting for charity on the streets, campaign in front of Parliament for awareness and funding for brain tumours, march in London's Pride parade alongside Macmillan's Information & Support bus, and volunteer wholeheartedly to help me organise a fundraising event to remember my wonderful dad as I celebrate my 30th birthday later this year.
Just as a 'random' act of kindness can be small in nature but enormous in impact, I hope these two little words can express my depth of feeling to everyone who's been kind to me: thank you.
