Task number 9 out of 20-something was to perform a random act of kindness either for someone you know or a complete stranger. This could be anything from mowing someone’s lawn for free to paying for someone’s coffee at Starbucks or just baking something for someone else. It was a great task, and something that definitely breaks you out of your weekly routine. Here’s what I did and my reflections on today’s activity:
Today’s random act of kindness was to surprise my family with an evening dining out. It was rather unexpected … and they kept asking “what’s the occasion?” even though I insisted repeatedly that I just wanted to do something nice. Apparently I need to do randomly kind things for my family more often, then this would seem less out-of-the-blue.
The random dinner did seem to lift everyone’s spirits. It came after they got home from the gym and allowed everyone to relax rather than having to worry about what’s for dinner of who’s setting up what for the evening. It gave us a chance to sit and breathe after a long, busy day. It also gave us the rare chance to dine out without a specific occasion on the agenda. This made everything very different in terms of table conversation and mood – I really liked it.