Kindnessgirl

Sometimes kindness missions just pop out of what seems like no where…the road to no where is lovely I guess. While preparing for a kindness workshop (which I’ll tell you about later),  an idea came to me. My kids are obsessed with Silly Bandz , heck, my husband is too, constantly trading the three he has on his arm. I even got a light blue unicorn off him…score! While the fad is probably on it’s way out, kindness squeaked in at the end. She’s wiley and sharp that way.

I asked my kids if they would like to make little bundles of Silly Bandz with a note attached and leave them all over parks in our city. Kid-to-Kid Kindness has to be my favorite of all. They were all over this mission, well, after the initial drama anyway. Lucy was devastated she had to wait more than 20 minutes to start to put them together and pick out her own. She decided to just help herself after I asked her to wait…oh boy. I must tell you there are often hiccups along the way with kindness work, but as Josiah told me today, “You just can’t give up, you have to keep trying.”

So we did…and I realized a few things about doing kindness missions with kids…

1. It’s nice to start with self-kindness. Almost every mission, we offer the same kindness to ourselves before we start. It reminds us there is enough for everyone and invites us to pass it on with full hearts.

2. Not everyone has to participate in every part. Jack had no interest in putting the little sets together but is jazzed to find spots in the park to leave them when we go tomorrow. It’s okay if a family member decides not to join in at all, but usually everyone is called to at least one part. I think mostly because it is a form of play and fun.

3. Everyone is capable, even the baby. Lyra (age 1) scribbled on tags today and I wrote on them, “This is for you! It is an act of kindness! This is the kindness message from the baby-” (with an arrow to her art work). Starting kids young and including them in missions helps them connect the concepts later and more importantly, becomes a way of life. Besides all that, it’s just so sweet.

4. It helps to do it all in one shot, but not neccessary. It’s good for keeping the momentum going and especially because kids so live in the moment. We try to do the mission all together from prep to finish. I have had times where kids were tired and grouchey and we bailed mid- mission and picked up the next day, or even the next week. Go with the flow.

5. After you get in the groove of doing kindness missions, kids are great leaders. I have found my kids have some of the most creative ideas for spreading kindness in the world. They also have great ideas for execution and insight on the heart and pulse of the joy part of our collective work. 

So we are off to the park tomorrow to share in this Silly Bandz kid kindness…hope your missions are sweet and bring you a great joy like they have for us!