Color Your Life Happy

In a recent post on his blog, Awake @ the Wheel, Jonathan Fields shared an experience where he believed he was conned out of $20 by a well-dressed couple with a convincing story.

He went on to discuss the relative goodness and badness of people and to encourage his readers to give their take.

Here’s modified version of what I commented at Jonathan’s blog:

I strongly believe that we have to hold on to our belief in the goodness of mankind, even though it means we’ll get taken sometimes.

Mother Teresa said something like when we are kind, some people will take advantage of us; be kind anyway.

Once I was in a fast food drive-through with my grandkids in tow. When I rolled up to pay for my food and get my purchase, the clerk handed me my bags of food and said, “Your food has already been paid for by the car that was in front of you.” It was the first time I can remember being the recipient of a random act of kindness.

I don’t know what motivated this person to pay for our meal, and they took off before I could even see what they looked like. 

Since then, I’ve on occasion extended the same kindness to total strangers.

I have been on both sides of kindness and it feels good both ways.

While thinking about simple ways that we can be kind I discovered the following video about the simple act of saying “thank you.”

Watch it and tell me your take on kindness. 

When they were young I insisted that my children send thank you notes for birthday, Christmas and other gift-giving occasions. They grumbled and protested, but I held fast.

Now as adults they write thoughtful and caring thank you notes for not only gifts, but after job interviews to each person on the committee.

Although I always knew that sending thank you notes was an important gesture, I didn’t realize at the time that showing gratitude was also a way to increase your own happiness.

Today I discovered a fabulous article that discusses not only the importance of thank you notes, but gives great detail and examples of what to say. I urge you to read How to Write an Effective Thank You Note for Any Occasion.

For which occasions do you send thank you cards?