Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world. ~ Annie Lennox

It’s 6 : 58  PM on day 519 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself oats for breakfast, prepare and publish my Disability of the Day feature, pray, read Genesis 30 as part of my ongoing quest to learn more about the Bible,   work,  feed myself rice and curry for lunch, work some more and watch TV.

Today February 14 ^th is Valentine’s Day everybody knows that but did you know that this year February 14 ^th marks the start of Random Acts of Kindness Week –it ends February 20 ^th and aims to promote a more kind and compassionate world – in honour of this very special week I’m going to share with you seventy-six random acts of kindness that I found on Best Random Acts of Kindness Ideas 85. Take a look:

The 76 Best Random Acts of Kindness Ideas
1. When you are at the drive through window of your favorite fast-foodrestaurant, pay for the customers meal order that is waiting behind you. Little will they know when they are pulling up to pay for their purchase that it has already been taken care of.

2. Next time you are at the gas station or corner market, purchase a lottery ticket and give it to the first person you pass on your way back to the car.

3. Ask your child to mow the elderlyneighbors lawn or wash their car. Then pay your child when they have finished and return home.

4. Open up the phone book or the on-line phone book and send a cheerful, “Hope you are having a nice day” type of card or even make them yourself for the first two names you see. Send them anonymously in the mail.

5. Purchase a homeless person a meal.

6. Offer to put someones cart full of groceries in their vehicle for them.

7. When cooking dinner make extra and deliver it to someone in theneighborhood who you know has a very busy schedule or is having to handle a situation that has disrupted their home life.

8. Offer childcare to a couple or parent you know could use the free time.

9. Offer to provide an art lesson at a local elementary school.

10. Stop in at a nursing home facility to play the piano for the residents.

11. Stop in at a nursing home to simply hold someones hand and listen to what they want to talk about.

12. Learn to be a better listener.
13. Deliver your used magazines and unwanted books to a nursing home or doctors office.
14. Offer to pump someones gas next time you are at the gas station. If you can pay for it.

15. Leave some change in the soda or snack vending machine.

16. Leave a couple extra quarters in a pay phone.

17. Next time you are at a restaurant, pick out someone you want to pay the bill for. Do so anonymously.

18. Let someone out in traffic.

19. When a driver makes a minor error that would normally cause you to become frustrated or angry, give them a smile or a gesture wave letting them know you understand and that happens to the best of us.
20. Get into the habit of waving, nodding or doing some other gesture to let drivers know you appreciate it when you have to get in front of them, when they are letting you out in traffic, etc. People used to do this in years past but it is rarely seen today.
21. Give a warm blanket to a homeless person.

22. Give a homeless person your extra change.
23. Let a supervisor or manager know how much you appreciate the excellent service an associate provided you with.
24. Next time you hear about a story on your local news of someone who needs some assistance, give what you can anonymously.
25. Offer your time and provide your skill or talent at the children’s hospital in your area.

26. Consider providing a good home and training to a puppy who will be a service dog when fully trained.

27. Provide a temporary home to kittens or puppies at the animal shelter who are motherless and require to be fed by bottle every few hours. Many times the shelters need people who can provide this kind of service in their homes when they receive puppies and kittens who have lost their mother and are very young.

28. Volunteer to answer the phones at a fund raiser or charity event to accept and process donations.

29. Volunteer to help serve a meal at a facility that caters to the homeless.

30. The next time you hear about a world disaster situation, donate clothing, money or anything else you are able to.

31. Give a cooking lesson to a couple of neighborhood kids.

32. Coordinate a block party or pot-luck to bring neighbors together.

33. Have an older child mow a neighbors lawn who needs it and then pay them when they finish.

34. Be a secret Santa to someone in your neighborhood or at your place of employment.

35. Adopt a pet from a shelter.

36. Deliver a couple bags of dog or cat food to a shelter.

37. Write a story and publish it on-line about someone special in your community.

38. Smile at everyone you see today.

39. Hold the door open for someone.

40. Wheel your neighbors trash can out to the curb for them.

41. Take your neighbors newspaper and lay it at the front door.

42. Pick up trash in your neighborhood.

43. Have an afternoon tea event for neighbors.

44. Help a neighborhood kid with their home work.

45. Run errands for someone who could really use the extra help.

46. Give your child a card that simply tells them how much you love them. For an added treat, mail it and have them get the mail.

47. Tuck a special note in your child’s backpack or school lunch that says you love them, you wish them a nice day or something funny only the two of you understand.

48. Send a spouse flowers to where they work at.

49. Pick up a parent for lunch just because you love them and want to spend a little together.

50. Tie balloons to your teens car to be seen in the morning when they head off to school.

51. Post a sign in the yard to show how proud you are of a special achievement with your child.

52. Plant a tree for mother earth.

53. Deliver a Christmas tree to a family at the holiday, anonymously.

54. Play Secret Santa to a family you know needs it.

55. Tutor a child who is having a difficult time in a certain subject.

56. Provide anything you are able to such as a skill, time, money or a talent to someone you know could use it.

57. Call someone you usually call because you need something to instead tell them how much you appreciate them or love them.

58. Leave a thank you note in your mailbox letting the delivery person know how much you appreciate their good service all year long.

59. Offer to help someone with their business should they be short-handed or need the extra assistance.

60. Find out where you can help someone who you know has a lot on their plate and could use the added help or support.

61. Coordinate a fund raising event for someone in your area who needs it.

62. Teach a skill to someone who has an interest in learning it.

63. Adopt a highway.

64. Donate books you no longer want to your local library. If you have childrens books consider donating them to a near-by elementary school. You could also start a book drive to collect a good amount of books to donate to a school who is in great need for them.

65. Make care pack for the homeless. Great project to involve your kids with.

66. Pay for someones coffee.

67. Leave a generous tip.

68. Be a friend to someone you dislike.

69. Leave a positive comment on someones web-site, blog or article they have written and then twitter or stumble it. In other words, help someone with bringing some additional traffic to their site.

70. Give a calling card to someone who needs it.

71. Pay a bill for someone you know could use the extra help.

72. Give a computer or laptop to an elderly person or someone who is home bound and hook them up to the Internet..

73. Drop off Christmas gifts to a families door anonymously.

74. Bring the neighborhood together by starting a secret gift exchange. Simply print up a flyer stating to drop off a small gift to anyone in the neighborhood they would like to who does not have the flyer hanging on their front door. The flyer should include after they receive it – to tape it to their front door so others participating do not leave another gift and pick someone who doesn’t have the flyer taped to their door. Leave a small gift when dropping off the flyer – ring the door bell or knock and then run out of sight!

75. Organize a progressive dinner in your neighborhood. You can get lots of information about progressive dinners off the Internet. After all it makes neighborhoods much nicer to live in when people know each other.

76. Adopt an adult who no longer has their parents. No matter how old we get there are still times when it would be nice to have your mom or dad.

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

If you’ve given to my cause or you can’t give now, please help me by sharing my cause with others. You can tweet about it like my friend Stan Faryna. This is the tweet he uses: @Nisha360 is a brave, smart young woman trying to make a better world for us all. Please help her do an amazing thing. http://bit.ly/hC7vOu

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!