Kindness and Hope

A few months ago I read a book by Katherine Center. It was an easy, fun read, about real life drama with a happy ending. I gobbled it up then read every book Center has written. Then, I started reading her blog. Before she took a hiatus to work on another novel she wrote about a kindness project she was a part of. I was intrigued then and since I'm on a kindness kick I think now is a good time share it with you. It takes the idea of random acts of kindness a step further.

The Hope Revolution website suggests that little notes of hope and goodness can counterbalance the stories of despair you hear every day on the TV or internet or maybe even in your own backyard. A hope note is nothing more than a small piece of paper with words that inspire and help one to feel hopeful. You can make the notes as plain or fancy as you'd like. Either way be sure to include the URL, hoperevo.com on the bottom or back of the card.

The next step is to take the notes out into the world and leave them where people will find them .... next to the Half and Half at Starbucks, stuck on a bathroom mirror, inside a returned library book, on a bus seat, tucked between Green Giant peas and beans. I imagine them to be like letting loose a balloon and watching it glide across a current of air until it is out of site. You'll never know what it might touch on its journey or where it may land, but it carries your joy with it.

I think hope notes are a great idea. But really the messages could be kindness notes, thank you notes, I love you notes, etc. It's the idea that you are reaching out to someone else attempting to make a difference.

So, what do you say? Are you in? Why not try it for a few days and see if a hope revolution can change your corner of the world. And if not someone else's heart, maybe your own.

Here are some quotes to get you fired up. Take it from there:

The little things? The little moments? They aren't little.

I wish you all the joy that you can wish.

Wm. Shakespeare

Nature never repeats herself and the possibilities of one

human soul will never be found in another.

If we live good lives, the times are also good.

As we are such are the times.

Hope is the dream of a soul awake.

French Proverb

Shoot for the moon.

Even if you miss, you will land among the stars.

Brian Littrell

May you have every happiness to make you sweet.

Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark.

George Iles

Hope is not a dream but a way of making drams become reality.

Hope is the power that gies us the power to step out and try.

Most of the important things in the world

have been accompanied by people

who have kept trying when there seemed

to be no hope at all.

Dale Carnegie.

There came a time when the risk

to remain tight in the bud

was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Anais Nin

“One of the deep secrets of life is that

all that is really worth the doing

is what we do for others."

“We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”

"Love the moment,

and the energy of that moment

will spread beyond all boundaries."

Corita Kent

Wishing for you joy-filled kindnesses returned 10-fold,

Merry ME