Are you generally a kind person?

Do you go around looking for opportunities for Random Acts of Kindness towards other people who also share this wonderful world with you?

It’s well documented that by being kind, you actually benefit yourself in many ways.

Every year we celebrate World Kindness Day.

No matter what, you don’t need a special world kindness day to how kindness to others.

You can do so anytime.

Random acts of kindness are a wonderful way of making someone’s day – and not only their day, but yours too!

Kindness is contagious!

And it’s a truly win/win situation – the person you are being kind to benefits through your help whilst you feel good for having helped someone.

Ultimately, the world is a better place through your kindness.

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A young man who was on vacation in Hawaii went for his morning jog along the beach.

As he was running, he saw from a distance an older Hawaiian woman standing at the edge of the water tossing something into the ocean.

He approached her and called out “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The Hawaiian lady looked up and replied “Throwing starfish into the sea.”

“Why are you throwing starfish into the sea?” asked the somewhat startled man.

To this, the woman replied, “The sun is now up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”

Upon hearing this, the seemingly wise man commented, “But Lady, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach littered with thousands of starfish? You can’t possibly make a difference!”

After hearing this, the Hawaiian Lady bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water she said, “It made a difference to this one.”

You have probably heard a similar story before about making a difference to one star fish at a time. But what do you and a starfish have in common?

I will get to that in a few minutes, but let us first look at the broader picture.

Did you know that global warming continues to be a major concern for the future of our planet?

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A miracle happened this week – 33 miners were rescued after 69 days being stuck underground.

Unless you too have been stuck somewhere underground for over the last two months, you will have heard of this story.

Millions of people watched around the world as each man came up to be met rapturously by their loved ones. Many tears of joy were shed – and I guess the party in Chile is still going on.

Did you cry too?!

I did and it’s okay to admit that you did so too. You and I are only human after all. One can never be failed to be moved by such human stories.

So a happy ending all around and really wonderful for the families of the 33 men who less than 3 months ago had given up their loved ones as literally dead and buried underground.

There is so much we can learn from this story of human survival, sheer guts and endurance. I can’t even imagine what those men went through in the first 17 days before the rescuers made contact.

What would you do if you were trapped underground for 69 days?

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Are you a giver or a taker?

Do you eat all the cake yourself or do you share it with others?

Everyone is a giver at their very core. We portray the world to be a place full of self-centered blowhards, but we couldn’t be further from the truth. Every day of our lives is spent giving in some way.

Each morning, we give our best effort to get out of bed. Come on, up and at ’em. You have somewhere to be and a boss to milk for your yearly bonus.

Throughout the day, we are frivolously giving away our time to people and actions that we don’t need. The jobs we do (for most of us), classes we attend, gossip-driven friends we converse with, channels we flip through, emails we check, routines we memorize: you could live without them.

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The world faces a lot of challenges today and it is easy to turn a blind eye to some of these things and hope that they will either go away or miraculously get sorted.

So many of us go through our lives, remaining silent about what matters to the world and other people. It is as if we are on auto-pilot, day after day.

“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out.” –Pastor Martin Niemöller

Sometimes, I feel that there is so much that could be done in the world, but where does one begin? Having the desire to change things is great, but what about actually following up?

Is just being compassionate enough?!

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to give someone a helping hand?

And what if you could help a stranger halfway around the world succeed in their business?!

What I have learnt over the years is that people do not just want charity or straight donations. Everyone has their own pride and dignity and they want to be able to look you in the eye.

What’s even more inspiring is that no matter what their life situation, people around the world can be incredibly enterprising, hardworking and determined to improve their life. And yet they could be facing seemingly insurmountable odds just to even survive each day.

All people want is a helping hand to improve their lot and simply be given a chance to get ahead a little bit.

What would it be like if you could plant a little seed of hope amongst such people?

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A while ago, I came across these words from Chief Seattle from the time when his people were required to give up their land in the middle of the 19th century.

Chief Seattle’s Prayer

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people.
Every shining Pine needle, every sandy shore, every
mist in the dark woods, every meadow,
every humming insect.

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Today is World AIDs Day.

Every now and then bloggers around the world unite to blog about a pressing issue of our day. And AIDs is just as big a challenge that we face today as global warming, poverty and war.

Some of the statistics about the scale of aids are just staggering:-

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