I was inspired by a video of a young Pakistani man. He celebrated his 22nd birthday with 22 random acts of kindness. I mentioned to my daughter Tamara that I'd like to copy the young man's idea for my upcoming 55th birthday in December. She agreed and so we decided to make it happen the next day.
We wore clumsy reindeer antlers (鹿角) to make people smile, placed cheerful stickers on the shirts of children, cleaned up a park, and passed out delicious Mexican hot chocolate to those in the park-many of whom appeared homeless.
At the end of the day, we passed out carnation flowers (康乃馨) in a retirement home after their dinner. At first, I found myself questioning my motivation and how it would be received. It turned out that the local Unity Church had a large group there at the same time singing to the people living in the home.
At first, I was surprised how almost every man enjoyed receiving a flower, not only from Tamara, but also from such an old man as me. Then, I found myself giving the women longer caring hugs. One commented that she had not been hugged like that for years. Then my heart was permanently touched when another woman told me that she had not been hugged like that by a man for five decades!
I didn't count the number of kind acts we did that day, and neither do I count that birthday as one of the good ones. Without doubt, I KNOW it was my best!
