Stories of Kindness from Around the World

This morning, I was blessed to take a walk in the woods with one of my favorite elders, a sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist who has been involved in countless community efforts to protect our local ecosystems and the many fellow species with whom we share our land and waters, from whales to pine trees.

It was great fun to walk around with him and learn about ghost pines, the role of ants in ecosystems, the difference between poison ivy and sassafras.   At some point in our conversation, I found myself talking to him enthusiastically about the random acts of kindness revolution that some of us at Cape Ann Angels are "plotting" to catalyze in our community over the coming months!   Cape Ann is in Western Massachusetts, and is composed of four towns (Rockport, Gloucester, Manchester and Essex) and about 50,000 people.

He had never heard of helpothers.org or Cape Ann Angels, but he was clearly familiar with the whole concept of anonymous acts of kindness, and much more so than I had expected.   Indeed, once I was done with my little overview of what my friends and I have been up to, he just smiled and said:

"Every Christmas eve, I pick up the phone book and randomly select 25 names.   I then anonymously call these folks and wish them and their family a very Merry Christmas!" 

He then paused and added...  "Do you realize that if we just got a few hundred people to do that, we could call every household on Cape Ann on Christmas Eve?" 

As  drove back home later, I thought:

Imagine that!  Tagging an entire community!   How is that for an awesome possibility!

I can't wait to share this story with my Cape Ann Angels team.  This man is clearly one of us... and way ahead of the game when it comes to strategy!