Advent of Kindness

In the words of a new favorite person of mine:  "Take care of yourself, take care of others, be kind.  Kindness is free, give it to everyone". 

This new favorite is Christopher Allen, a fellow you can get to know on YouTube.

He is a super sweet guy who has a YouTube channel devoted to style, decorating, diy crafts, health, planning, and yes, kindness.  He lives somewhere back East with his partner Steven, and as well as working full time, he creates interesting content on his YouTube channel.  Evidently, as a kid he was bullied and spent some miserable years in public school.  As a result, instead of becoming bitter or angry, he has channelled his efforts into being the kindest person he can be.  You will not hear a negative word out of this man's mouth.  He is relentlessly cheerful, up beat and positive.

He is quite a nut for celebrating Christmas, and his decorating tips are wonderful.  I learned everything there is to know from him about how to use ribbon to decorate your Christmas tree.  Instead of having a tree that resembles a sad and rather berserk May Pole, my tree now is decorator worthy.  He is very enthusiastic about Advent calendars and must have six of them that he and Steven enjoy opening every day.  It is very fun to see what is out there, even if you don't spend the money on them yourself.

Anyway, back to kindness.  Christopher has created a list he calls The Advent of Kindness.  Every day in December up to Christmas, he has an act of kindness he suggests we do for ourselves or others.  Click here for the link to his calendar.  If you are interested, you can print it out and give it a go.  Some of the actions are very simple, such as "Hold a door open for someone"  or "Let someone go ahead of you in line".  Others involve a bit more effort, such as today's prompt "Donate some books to the library".  At the very least, his list has ideas of small things we can do to make the day a bit more of a joy for others.

All of us need and deserve kindness.  You never know what is going on in the life of someone else.  Sometimes the smallest gesture can make the biggest difference.

Comments

[Mary Kastner]

Thanks for this post Nicole. What a wonderful way to start my day and week! Have a great day! How about a picture of your tree?😉

Mary

[Mary]

I love this, and thank you for sharing!

[Barbara Anne]

So true! Yes, I'd like to see your tree, too.

We're snowed in, so today will have to be kind to DH and the cat!

Hugs!

[Jan]

Google the story of the First Class passenger switching seats with a mother & her child on oxygen that will make your week if you haven't read it yet! Such an unselfish generous act of kindness! It's never wrong to be a thoughtful person.

[Arrowhead Gramma]

My chosen word to live by for the last two years has been "kindness." I try each and every day to shown kindness to someone. Whether it be as simple an act as opening the door for someone at the post office or just telling someone to have a good day. It is surprising how people react to the simple act of kindness. Seems it is something we are losing in this day and age.

[Hildy]

Thanks for sharing this and I try to be a kind person but soemthímes it's really hard.

[Kathy Czuprynski]

I am trying to thank people in my life that have been kind to me. I want to thank you for your blog. Every day I check to see what's going on in your life. I even made Metro Hoops because I saw it here and in Tamarack Shack Blog. So thanks! And Happy Holidays to you and your family!