A kind heart
That ripples out into the world
“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”
Mother Teresa
I recently shared a post about writing letters of kindness, as a little reminder for us all to do something kind for ourselves and others. This provided me with a moment of reflection as I remembered all the times I have written kind words.
I realise that I have written notes of kindness many times before. As a Learning Support Assistant, I wrote thoughtful notes to every child at the end of term to tell them how wonderful they were and how proud I was of them.
When I went travelling I sent postcards home to my family to let them know I was thinking of them. In my yoga classes I have made cards and written positive messages for my students to remind them of the kindness they hold within.
I have written kindness postcards and hidden them in library books, pinned them on notice boards and placed them around for people to find, just to brighten someones day.
More recently I have written letters to friends to show them the goodness I see and how much I appreciate their kindness. These are just things I do to show others I care. I hadn’t realised, until now, that I had been writing notes of kindness for over 30 years.
Seeing kindness ripple out is a wonderful thing, maybe that note was seen and brought a smile, maybe it was forgotten about, or maybe, just maybe it was the seed that made a real difference. We may never know how our kindness impacts someone else, but that’s ok, it’s the act of opening our heart and sharing our kind words that counts.
I really hope that my little acts of kindness no matter how small, have rippled outwards in some way.
“Treasure every single human action. With each tiny effort, you may be planting a positive seed that could grow forever. Just imagine. It may be your very next action.”
Tony Ryan - The Ripple Effect
The one place I can see kindness ripple out, is at home. I have seen kindness show up through my daughter time and time again. In primary school when all the other children were receiving awards and certificates for their spellings or class work, my daughter received awards for her kindness. It seemed unfair at the time that she wasn’t rewarded for her efforts in school, but I am so proud of the way she looked out for other children and supported her teachers. She never shared how she helped, I only found out later.
There was the time she sat with another child who had broken their arm, just because she knew how that felt and wanted to be there for them. There was the time she stopped her teacher from choking having recently done some first aid training. She didn’t even mention it, but her teacher was extremely grateful for that kind act and unhesitating response.
Other acts of kindness have shown up in her dance competitions where her team often received a congeniality award, for being positive and compassionate role models, although she would have liked to win the dance competition too. She has donated her hair a couple of times to The Little Princess Trust to ensure that real hair wigs can be given to children and young people, who have lost their own hair through cancer treatment.
I have also seen her help her friends and look after them when they needed it. I have seen her take care of younger children and look after other peoples pets. I have seen how she has supported her friends at college and helped them with their projects. She has a kind heart and likes to help and guide people. If my acts of kindness only ever ripple out to her, then I am over the moon that kindness continues to ripple outwards through her, just the way it should.
“Ripples can begin from any single thing that you do. Thus, you must treat every action as though it is the special one that will create lasting change.”
Tony Ryan - The Ripple Effect
Now that she is at University and I have a little more time, I will continue to send letters of kindness out. I will share a few kind words and allow the ripples of light to shine and brighten someones day.
This week I gained a little inspiration by attending a ‘Christmas Donate A Letter Workshop’ organised by the charity ‘From Me to You Letters’ to encourage people to write letters to those living with cancer. It gave some helpful hints and tips on starting and finishing our letters and what to write about in between. Often we don’t know what to say, but we can start simply by offering a little description of our day, what we have been up to, what we like about winter or a funny anecdote that may just bring a smile and transport someone to a happier moment. Why not give it a try and see if you can bring a smile to a stranger.
To read the full ‘Letters of Kindness’ post and receive…
A link to a guided loving-kindness meditation
A guide to writing a letter of kindness to yourself.
A list of organisations that encourage letter writing.
A letter of kindness to you, that you can print out, read or send to someone who may need to hear a few kind words.
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Thanks so much, keep spreading the kindness and letting the light ripple out into the world.
It's interesting how you've been on this kindness journey for like thirthy years without even realy seeing the whole picture, and it makes me wonder what it was like to finally connect all those points and realize the massive impact you've had.
Absolutely love this! Writing kindness notes and letters in this way is so beautiful and powerful! Thank you for sharing Anne 💕🙏