Kindness Unleashed

Today, more reflections on the kindness that Hurricane Harvey unwittingly unleashed. So many stories of rescue and relief.

This morning, an email from a school in Pennsylvania whose student leadership team has planned a Dance/Hop-A-Thon and will donate all of their proceeds to help us recover. I can't wait to see the pictures of them dancing up a storm for us. 

A family moved out of their home so that another family that flooded could live there. Others are lending their cars. Can you imagine? 

A real estate agent new to our area who took it upon himself to go shopping for clothing and shoes that he donated and delivered to school. How kind is that? 

This flood survivor. Once they could get back into their home, she asked her mom if she could donate some of her clothes for other children who flooded. 

When I asked her why she gave away things that still fit her, she told me that the flood made her realize that she didn't need so many things.  

Then there's these boys, who made and sold rubber-band wristbands on a street corner for funds to give to their PE coach, who lost everything in the flood waters.

Earlier in the week, a care package with comfort cards from FL,

another from Allen, Texas, two from Colorado, two from Missouri,

and this priority mail from counselor and author Laurie Mendoza

and two of her school's classes in MA.

Today, news that another special delivery is headed our way

from WA and yet another from VA.

So much kindness ... unleashed!

Still, I'm reminded that it doesn't have to take a natural disaster

for us to show kindness to one another.

Before anyone ever heard of Harvey,

my Godmother Sue sent this beautiful book to me,

just to be kind and because she liked it so well.

Written by Lisa Barrickman, a friend of theirs from church, this treasure trove details the forty acts of kindness that the author set out to do as a way to celebrate her forty years of life. Every chapter is better than the next as Lisa weaves in how she made kindness actionable and how it positively affected not only her as the giver but also the person on the receiving end. Each chapter concludes with an inspirational verse from the Bible. 

I especially love the reference to Dr. Patty O'Grady's work about how kindness changes our brains. Turns out the experience of kindness imprints on our brains not just by talking about it or thinking about it. Instead, we have to actually feel it so we "can reproduce it." (p. 29)

Clearly we are experiencing kindness in a big way in the Lone Star State; 

its wave of compassion and love is more powerful than that storm called Harvey ever dreamed of becoming. 

Check out A Case For Kindness and prepare to be inspired. Join the movement at their Facebook page {here}. Then check back and let us know how you've unleashed kindness in your world.