28 Days of Love; Last Acts & Final Thoughts

As February comes to a close, I'm proud to say that I completed everything on my list (below) with only one replacement. Unfortunately, it didn't work out babysitting our friend's kid, so instead I sent one of my besties a surprise gift! Or I could have replaced it with letting the random, adorable 85 year old man tell me me all about his family for 10 minutes and show me 18 pictures in the grocery store. It was cute. 

My final five acts from this week: 

1. Filled the coffee and snack machines with quarters at the gym.
2. Paid for the persons order behind me at the 'Bucks.

3. Take a bouquet of flowers to the hospital for the nurses to give a patient. (I chose the elderly neurological wing figuring there had to be an old person there who needed something to brighten up their day!)

4. Smile at every person I made eye contact with for a day all weekend. 

5. Took quizzes on 4 sites that donate food/money to 3rd world countries.

Total Cost: $165 

(but $75 of that was splurged to adopt a rhino at the zoo!)

People Effected: TONS!

Lives Changed Forever: Definitely one at least.  :)

Final Thoughts

Warning: The rest of this post might be a bit boring to some as I look back on this challenge. It's more for my memories than anything.  :)

What started out as a small, fun idea ended up being an eye-opening, life-changing challenge for me. I never realized the tiniest actions could warrant such huge reactions nor did I fathom they could bring me to tears and humble me more than I could have ever imagined.

I created and spent a lot of time putting together my list of acts the last week of January and couldn't wait to get started in February. I have to admit, I jumped the gun on a couple of them as I just couldn't wait. One of the first acts I did was one that I absolutely adored the most. I was filled with energy when I took each crossing guard a hot coffee on that freezing morning. The excitement as I drove up to each of them was beyond words and the reactions I received when I told them to stay warm and thanks for watching over our children was priceless. With their smiles in my mind and the adrenaline speeding through my body, I had one of the best treadmill runs in a long time that morning.

But the day I went shopping at the Dollar Store to collect items for a few acts was a low point for me. It absolutely broke my heart to buy the cheapest of toothbrushes and realize that there were families in our community that could not afford them. It pained me to limit my purchases as I wanted to gather every single item off the shelf and take it to the homeless shelter. When I got home, I broke down to Derek. We stress over the silliest decisions for our children; what outfit to wear for the photo shoot or which color Stride Rite shoes look the best, yet I was buying soap for families who have nothing. Soap. That shopping trip was an unbelievably humbling experience for me and I'll never forget it.

My mailman loved the hand-warmers and the nurses in the maternity ward were so excited for my basket of snacks, but in the end, they weren't the ones to benefit the most. Nope. It's the person who never realized how much manly firefighters would love cupcakes or how much the food pantry would appreciate just a couple bags of food. I now yearn to win the lottery only so that I can do bigger acts. Knowing I probably will never win, I still plan to continue doing random acts throughout my life definitely on a monthly basis, but hopefully on a weekly basis.

Can you imagine how much different this world would be if we all did one random act of kindness a month? It gives me chills just thinking about it. There's so much we can do that doesn't involve a single penny and takes 5 minutes of our time, yet can really warrant a smile or touch a heart. Is there anything better than knowing you made someones day?